A day after charging 36 pro-Palestinian demonstrators, UNC won’t release arrest records

Korie Dean, Tammy Grubb
·2 min read
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A day after charging three dozen protesters while breaking up a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, UNC-Chapel Hill still has not released arrest and citation information identifying those detained and charged Tuesday.

Arrest reports are public records under state law and are typically available within hours of someone being arrested. UNC officials did not provide a reason for withholding the records, which could help in the reporting of the ongoing protests, in an email response Wednesday.

UNC Police cited 10 students and 20 people it said were unaffiliated with the university with trespassing on Tuesday. Another six protesters were arrested and charged at the Orange County jail with trespassing.

At least one protester was also charged with assault on a government official and resist delay and obstruct, according to a UNC Police crime log. Two more crime log entries posted Wednesday showed charges for simple assault at 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday, but do not indicate whether someone was arrested.

Law enforcement officers detain Pro-Palestinian protesters in their encampment on the UNC campus Tuesday morning, April 30, 2024.
Law enforcement officers detain Pro-Palestinian protesters in their encampment on the UNC campus Tuesday morning, April 30, 2024.

Encampment removal ordered

The arrests came just hours after UNC’s interim chancellor and provost ordered the removal of the encampment from Polk Place. UNC policy prohibits temporary structures, including tents, from being erected on campus unless approved in advance.

The pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with police throughout the day Tuesday, at one point after replacing the U.S. flag on the flagpole outside South Building with a Palestinian flag.

Protesters threw water on Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts and a group of police officers as they reinstalled the U.S. flag. Protesters tried to remove the flag again a short while later, but were stopped by counter-protesters who held the flag up so it did not touch the ground. The counter-protesters took the flag to a police staging area in Gerrard Hall.

The university canceled classes, on the last day of the semester, and also suspended all non-mandatory operations.

Campus officials worked with a facilities crew to rehang the flag Tuesday evening. The flag remained on its flagpole Wednesday. as UNC workers continued cleaning up graffiti, signs and trash left behind from the protests. Nearby, a small group of students posed for photos at the Old Well in their Carolina blue graduation robes.