Under the flashing lights of a police helicopter and five arrest vehicles, 36 protesters were arrested on the South Oval Thursday night.
At roughly 10:02 p.m., law enforcement officers — including state troopers and Ohio State police — donned shields and approached the crowd of about 250, who were forming a circle around at least 10 tents. One by one, the officers dragged the protesters to the vehicles on College Road while the crowd continued to wave flags and chant “let them pray.”
The first arrest took place at roughly 10:08 p.m., with additional arrests occurring minutes after. By 10:56 p.m., at least 30 arrests had been made.
After pulling roughly 10 protesters from the crowd for arrests, the officers began forming a line from the arrest vehicles to what remained of the circular formation. The tents and tarps from the middle of the crowd were taken and piled near police cars.
Protesters continued to chant “free, free Palestine” as more arrests were made and created an even tighter formation, slowly being pushed toward the south side of the lawn. A crowd of about 40 watched from the other side of the street as more students ran to join them as police closed in.
Around 11:01 p.m., officers pushed the group entirely off the South Oval. While some protesters exited to North High Street, hundreds of others remained in a standoff on either side of 12th Avenue.
The arrests came after over 350 students and community members formed a circle around an encampment at 5:30 p.m. Originally, Ohio State police warned protesters that setting up tents on the South Oval is prohibited — as stated in the university’s space rules — and that if they did not disperse in five minutes, they would be subject to arrest.
No arrests were made at the time, however 15 state troopers arrived at the scene at 7:32 p.m. and told protesters they had 15 minutes to vacate. Within a few minutes, some individuals began leaving the circle.
Finally, a light tower was set up in the southeast corner of the lawn and Ohio State police made another announcement at 9:52 p.m. that the protesters were “in violation of university space rules.”
The officers then approached the students on the lawn and began making arrests, frequently repeating the same warning over the next hour and a half as students refused to leave.
In addition to barring tents that haven’t received “prior approval” from Facilities Operations and Development, the rules also state that noise is restricted Monday through Friday before 5:30 p.m., and after 10 p.m. The university defines restricted noise as disruptive of “the function of the University,” or sound that can be heard more than 50 feet from its source.
For “overnight events,” the rules state “outside habitation must not be the primary focus of the event.” University spokesperson Ben Johnson said the university defines “overnight events” as after when “sunset” occurs.
After several threats from the police, Rotaj Radeyah Khalil, a third-year in chemistry, said “just do it already.”
“They keep edging us with, ‘We might get arrested, you might get arrested,’ and it’s like if you’re gonna be a fascist police state right now, go through with it,” Khalil said. “I’m not excited to get arrested, it’s more like you know they’re gonna do it anyway or they’re gonna keep threatening us, threatening our lives, so it’s just like, stop threatening. If you’re going to just threaten us, leave us alone. If you’re gonna do it, just do it. Don’t pussy out.”
Before the arrests, Atlas Claypool, a fourth-year in sociology, said a victory for the protesters would be for the police to leave them alone to “protest and to demonstrate and give us our free speech.” He said the university won’t protect Palestinian students.
“They don’t consider us students — they consider us terrorists, and I think it’s absolutely terrible that they’re using our money to drop bombs on children, when they’re literally trying to take us away from protesting. What are we supposed to do?” Claypool said.
The event was a continuation of an encampment attempted Thursday morning, which quickly dissipated after Ohio State police arrested three people. At this evening’s event, the crowd locked arms in a tight circle surrounding about 10 tents for at least four hours, chanting, praying and singing as Ohio State police stood around them.
Given the arrests that morning, the protest was advertised as “high risk” by the organizations who held it. On Tuesday, two students were also arrested during a protest outside of Meiling Hall on charges of criminal trespassing.
As students initially gathered outside of the Ohio Union around 5 p.m., the university locked the doors near College Road. Johnson said this was in an attempt to control the crowd.
About 15 students and community members draped in Israeli flags or in “Ohio State stands with Israel” shirts followed the crowd as it moved toward the South Oval around 5:19 p.m., chanting over them.
Protesters then began forming a circle in the South Oval and organizers announced that there was to be no chanting from participants. This was when a group of protesters began to form a circle as one person led a prayer, with no microphones or sound-amplifying devices present.
This story was updated Friday at 2:10 p.m. with a confirmed number of arrests.
