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Chief Student Experience Officer Allen Groves and Department of Public Safety Chief Craig Stone wrote in a campus-wide email that DPS arrested a Syracuse University parent Sunday for “continuing to verbally berate” students at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at SU and later refusing to deescalate.

A small group of individuals, including three parents, approached the encampment on SU’s Shaw Quadrangle Sunday at approximately 1:20 p.m. According to witnesses, Groves and Stone wrote, one parent became “aggressive in his verbal treatment” of the students present. The parent refused to deescalate after requests from SU’s Student Experience staff and DPS, according to the campus-wide statement.

According to DPS, the parent began to toss students’ food from a table, move signs and verbally berate students at the encampment after Student Experience staff asked the parent to deescalate.

DPS officers then intervened and asked the parent to “deescalate and depart campus.” Officers arrested the parent after they refused to, according to the statement. Groves and Stone wrote they believe there was “no physical contact with protestors.”

“Harassing behavior or conduct from anyone that creates a safety concern will not be tolerated,” DPS wrote in the statement. “DPS officers and members of the Student Experience team continue to be present at the site of the Quad protest.”

The arrested person demanded to speak with Chancellor Kent Syverud on behalf of the Jewish community in response to Saturday’s “Community Support Rally,” where a non-affiliate reportedly punched a student after gesturing a Nazi salute toward students, according to a Saturday night campus-wide email from Groves and Stone.

“Officer, let’s protect Jews on campus. Were Jews protected last night on campus?” the parent said to the DPS officers. “Somebody screamed ‘Heil Hitler’ at this campus. I want to speak to the chancellor. Bring the chancellor here.”

While occupying the encampment, the parent asked several of those who walked by to “join us” and addressed various comments at the protesters in the encampment.

“Hey folks in this Palestine cave, how many of you support America?” the parent said. “This is (a) hate crime, this is hate.”

When a DPS officer tried to talk to the parent away from the encampment, the parent refused and requested the officer come to them, citing they felt “afraid” after a Jewish person was “beaten here” during Saturday’s rally. The individual, along with another parent, requested to speak to “somebody in charge.”

“We are concerned for our safety, Jews are walking on this campus scared,” the arrested parent said to the DPS officers.

A university employee informed the individual that the chief and deputy chief of DPS were willing to speak with him at Sims Hall, where DPS headquarters are located. The individual again said they were “scared” to relocate and requested that DPS speak at the encampment instead.

After multiple requests for the individual to leave the protest space and warnings that he was on private property, DPS arrested the individual. When he asked why he was being arrested, the officer told him he was on private property.

Scott Bernstein, one of the other parents who approached the encampment, said the group was trying to find out when the tents would be taken down and called the tents “a slap in the face to every Jewish student on this campus.”

“This is a function of the university ignoring … the concerns of parents,” he said. “The chancellor won’t communicate to us and we can’t get clear answers as to what the rules of engagement are, as to why this group is treated separately and is entitled to real estate indefinitely.”

This post will be updated with additional reporting.

Published on May 5, 2024 at 8:59 pm

Contact Samantha: saolande@syr.edu