Jill Stein accuses police of assaulting her at protest
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein on Sunday alleged police assaulted her and other demonstrators shortly before being arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.
“Basically, the police charged us despite our efforts to deescalate, they charged us with bicycles. And you'll see… plenty of footage of that around the internet,” Stein said Sunday on NewsNation’s “NewsNation Prime.” “They basically used their bicycles as a weapon to push us back, to push us over onto our backs.”
Stein was among more than 80 people arrested Saturday after the demonstrators "refused to leave after being asked multiple times," according to a statement from the Washington University in St. Louis.
“In my case, one of the officers actually lifted up one of my feet, you can see in some of this footage, where I'm basically being thrown backward, like onto my head, and I wiggled out of that assault, and was told by the officer that I was assaulting him, which is absolutely ludicrous.”
Stein said she was charged with assaulting an officer and told NewsNation she has “really sore” ribs.
She said she was expecting to go to the emergency room to check for a rib fracture after she claimed the police “rammed” the handles of their bikes into the demonstrators’ chests and ribcage.
Protests calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war have roiled college campuses for days, prompting the arrests of hundreds of student and faculty demonstrators across the country.
Stein’s campaign account posted a video of the candidate being escorted off campus by two police officers, with her hands apparently tied behind her back. Her campaign said she was arrested along with her campaign manager, Jason Call, and deputy campaign manager, Kelly Merrill-Caye.
She and the other protestors were released around 2 a.m. on Sunday from the St. Louis County Jail, her campaign stated.
Washington University said the protestors arrived on campus on Saturday “with the intention of causing a significant disruption to the university.” The group began to set up a camp in violation of university policy, we made the decision to tell everyone present that they needed to leave,” the university added.
The Hill reached out to Washington University for comment.
Stein said she felt “enormous solidarity” with the student protestors.
“Because they're the ones who really are risking everything right now to demand a kind of a moral response to this moral emergency and this genocide, which is rolling out every day on our video screens and are on our iPhones,” she said.
“I felt so much respect for them that they are risking their ability to stay in the university, to graduate, to have their credits, to maintain their housing, they have put it all on the line in order to challenge a system that is fundamentally not serving us. In particular, they are challenging the university to devolve to reveal and to divest from Boeing, in particular, with whom the university has large contracts,” she added later.
NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.
Date: |
Filter
-
Police clear protest encampment over war in Gaza at UC Irvine
Police have cleared a lecture hall at the University of California-Irvine after hundreds of protesters occupied the building for several hours Wednesday. Officers dismantled an encampment and barricades while detaining some of the protesters. CBS ...CBS News - Top stories -
WATCH LIVE: Protesters speak out after encampment dismantled at DePaul
Yahoo News - World -
At Least 12 Arrested at U.C. Berkeley After Police Order Protesters to Disperse
The authorities had given demonstrators until 7 p.m. to vacate a new encampment that had been erected at a fire-damaged complex on campus.The New York Times - Top stories -
Golf star Scheffler plays hours after being charged with police officer assault
World number one Scottie Scheffler is charged with assaulting a police officer hours before his second round at the US PGA Championship.BBC News - Top stories -
Colleges, police blame 'outside agitators' for campus protests. Experts say it's not so simple
As the dust settles and the number of pro-Palestinian student encampments dwindle, claims of “outside agitators” among the protesters are being put under the microscope as colleges say those unaffiliated with them caused most of the trouble, an ...The Hill - Politics
More from The Hill
-
Ocasio-Cortez hits back at Fetterman: 'I stand up to bullies'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hit back at Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) following his derisive comments on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing Thursday night that erupted in chaos and was littered with insults. “In the ...The Hill - Politics -
Johnson condemns lawmaker fighting at hearing: ‘Not a good look’
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) condemned the tone of a raucous Thursday night House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing saying members need to show decorum. “It's not a good look for Congress,” Johnson told reporters as they asked about a ...The Hill - Politics -
12:30 Report — Inside the House's late-night drama
{beacon} 12:30 REPORT Happy Friday! Season 3 of Bridgerton is out and I’m SO excited. Here’s what’s happening today: House lawmakers erupted into a verbal brawl last night during a hearing. It was wild. Just watch the video. That’s all I’ll say. ...The Hill - Politics -
Has the administration overstepped with the new airline ticket fee disclosures?
The USDOT’s attempt to control airline finances, effectively highlighting the gap between the different types of flyers and airline loyalty members, serves no one’s best interest.The Hill - Politics -
Durbin calls for Alito recusal from Jan. 6 cases over upside-down flag flew at his home
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called on Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from all cases related to the 2020 election and Jan. 6, 2021 after it was reported that an upside-down American flag was flown outside his ...The Hill - Politics