BREAKING: Jill Stein and her Campaign Manager and Deputy Campaign Manager, Jason Call and Kelly Merrill-Cayer, have been arrested at Washington University in St. Louis while supporting a protest against WashU’s ties to the war on Gaza.Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was among the roughly 100 people arrested Saturday at Washington University in St. Louis.
Pro-Palestine protesters have been calling for the university to divest from Boeing, which supplies weapons to Israel.
Video from @KallieECox pic.twitter.com/rkUYC9b5Qx
— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) April 28, 2024
Stein's campaign manager, Jason Call, and deputy campaign manager, Kelly Merrill-Cayer, were also arrested.
“The demand from the encampment was specifically for the university to divest from Boeing, which manufactures munitions used in the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza at their nearby St Charles facility,” Call told Fox News. “The Stein campaign supports the demands of the students and their peaceful protest and assembly on campus. Student protest for peace and civil liberties has always represented the best part of our collective moral conscience. Solidarity.” Over 100 students and community members violently arrested at the WashU encampment tonight, including Jill Stein who was brutalized by a police bicycle. pic.twitter.com/xwhoQjOWqe
— Cinthia Romo Alba 🍉 (@cromoalba) April 28, 2024
A video from the protest showed Stein pushing against a police officer who appeared to be using a bicycle as a riot shield.
Kallie Cox, a reporter for The Riverfront Times, spoke to Stein just before the arrests began.
"We're here to support the students who are standing up for our highest American values, for our democracy and for an end to this genocide which is unacceptable and a blight on this nation," Stein told Cox. "It must be stopped. The American people want it stopped. That's what these students are here standing up for." From an interview before her arrest at Washington University: pic.twitter.com/IaaiWcpsIq
— Kallie Cox (@KallieECox) April 28, 2024
Wash University said in an email to students obtained by The Riverfront Times, “It quickly became clear through the words and actions of this group that they did not have good intentions on our campus. We also felt strongly that this demonstration had the potential to get out of control and become dangerous. When the group began to set up a camp on the east end of campus in violation of university policy, we made the decision to tell everyone present that they needed to leave. Any individuals who refused to leave after being asked multiple times were arrested.”
“All will face charges of trespassing and some may also be charged with resisting arrest and assault, including for injuries to police officers. We are taking this matter very seriously. For those who are students, we also have initiated the university student conduct process.”
Megan Green, president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen and an adjunct professor at the university challenged the official statement in a post on X.
"The statement from the university is wild and absolutely false. There was no turn at the protests other than students sat down to eat and some left to go to the bathroom. Completely calm, until the police came in like an ambush," Green wrote. Simply a tactic to scare folks and try to discredit the protests. The only aggressors were the police and the university who called in 6 police departments to respond.
— Dr. Megan Ellyia Green 🌹 (@MeganEllyia) April 28, 2024
"Simply a tactic to scare folks and try to discredit the protests. The only aggressors were the police and the university who called in 6 police departments to respond."
