SUNY Purchase pro-Palestine protesters may not be prosecuted: Westchester DA
The vast majority of the 68 individuals arrested as part of the pro-Palestine protests at SUNY Purchase will not be prosecuted, a spokesperson for the Westchester County District Attorney said Tuesday.
Nearly all of the 68 individuals will be offered a chance to enroll in an alternative to prosecution known as "Fresh Start," which was created by District Attorney Mimi Rocah in 2021 as a way for first-time defendants to avoid criminal prosecution.
The Fresh Start program consists of a three-hour curriculum where participants discuss in a group setting the nature of the criminal justice system and how they came to be involved in it. The program can refer individuals to further social services as needed.
After completion of the program, the District Attorney's Office will decline to prosecute the cases, effectively terminating the charges.
Trespass was the most common charge issued out of the SUNY Purchase encampment arrests.
Jin Whang, Rocah's director of public affairs, said a small handful of defendants were not eligible to participate in Fresh Start because it is only offered to first-time offenders.
Students on campus say they were sitting silently in a circle as a form of protest and adhering to the school's quiet hour policy on the night of May 2, when police began to break up the circle and arrest the students at the encampment.
“It was completely uncalled for" said Kaelin Martin, one of the Purchase students who was arrested and attended the hearing Tuesday morning. "We actually began sitting in a circle quietly, even respecting the quiet hours that our school implements. It’s completely ridiculous and [the school] couldn’t have handled it worse.”
Sabrina Thompson, a junior at the college and a member of the student protest group Raise the Consciousness said she believed the arrests were an "unconstitutional violation" of students' right to free speech on campus.
“We’re all peaceful protesters. We’re protesting the Palestinian genocide and our country and our college, SUNY Purchase’s complicity in funding Israel and funding their genocide of the Palestinians," Thompson said. "We were arrested and weren’t even told what we were charged for. [We were] just thrown in police vans for silently sitting on our lawn on campus, an open campus that we live at. Now we’re here to serve our day in court for peacefully protesting a genocide.”
Student representatives met on May 6 with college president Milagros Peña, where both parties came to a tentative agreement to open conversation with students about the conflict.
The students and administration agreed to an investigation into the incident on May 2 by an outside entity, conversations around ethical investing and transparency regarding companies that engage with Purchase College and a suspension of disciplinary consequences for those arrested, contingent on whether the students don't commit any other student code of conduct violations.
Peña said in a statement, however, that the school did not agree to divest from Israel or take any further actions beyond what was discussed in the meetings.
"Our progress together must be built on a relationship of trust," she said. "We reaffirm that everyone on this campus has the right to work and learn in a safe environment, free from discrimination and harassment. Our commitment is to provide an equitable educational environment, as per our legal, moral, and ethical duty, and I will continue to partner with all in the campus community who share this commitment."
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: SUNY Purchase pro-Palestine protesters may not be prosecuted
