Video taken by a witness and confirmed by local reporters captured the moment Noëlle McAfee, the chair of Emory University’s philosophy department, was dragged from a pro-Palestine campus protest in handcuffs Thursday evening—as she called on a student to let her peers know she’d been arrested.
McAfee, who’s also the president-elect of the Emory University Senate, can be heard calling out to a stranger—who recorded the whole ordeal—and telling him she was merely observing the protest and was not participating.
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While McAfee spoke, she was dragged in the opposite direction down a sidewalk by an officer who’d concealed his face with a balaclava. The onlooker recording repeatedly told her he was sorry as she was whisked away.
Emory, in Atlanta, was the site of some of the nastiest clashes between protesters and students nationwide Thursday, with clips spreading online of mass arrests, of cops using a stun gun on a restrained demonstrator, and of police firing non-lethal rounds to corral protesters.
The prestigious private university, which ranks in the top 25 in U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings, was among dozens of colleges across the country that have held demonstrations against Israel’s brutal campaign in the Gaza Strip—and their schools’ investments in arms manufacturers providing the nation with weapons.
Protests have exploded nationwide since a violent clash at Columbia University last week, where the NYPD was dispatched to shut down a massive on-campus tent city—just for it to be rebuilt days later.
In Atlanta, protesters railed against the police response at Emory, describing it as overkill. Caleb Bunch, a junior at the university, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he witnessed a Georgia State Patrol officer ride a motorcycle into the quad of protesters to disperse them.
“It’s a little alarming,” he said. “I don’t really understand why it’s necessary to have GSP be here, especially riding in on motorcycle.”
Tara Doyle, a lecturer in the school’s theology department, agreed. She told the paper she was “disappointed” that her employer would unleash “heavy-handed, unnecessary violence against our students.”
In total, 23 people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, obstruction of law enforcement officers, or other charges, reported the Journal-Constitution.
Cops defended their response, telling the paper “there wasn’t anything peaceful about what was going on” with the approximately two dozen who were arrested. Emory also had police’s back, writing in a statement that protesters had pushed campus cops as part of their demonstration and set up tents in an area that was needed for commencement set-up.
Emory said one demonstrator—who was not affiliated with the university—attacked an officer and “was tased,” the Journal-Constitution reported.
The Georgia State Patrol confirmed it used “pepper balls” to disperse the crowd, but denied using tear gas.
Jail records did not show McAfee as being arrested or charged, and she did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast. Statements from police and the university did not address the arrest of McAfee.
