Wu: Emerson protesters ‘wanted to be arrested’

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Tuesday defended Boston police’s recent clearing of a pro-Palestinian encampment at Emerson College, saying a city ordinance banning encampments could not be applied selectively and that protesters there “wanted to be arrested.”

“The city has an ordinance intended to protect public health and safety around encampments and tents,” Wu said, referring to a 2023 statue made to mark the situation at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea To address Cass Boulevard, where Boston’s addiction, mental health and homelessness crises have been converging for years.

So far, Wu said, this regulation has been used more than 30 times to prevent new camps from forming.

“We can’t say to unhoused residents, ‘You have to comply with this order, which is for health and safety, but if you’re a student or involved in a cause that we agree with, then we are.’ “I’ll look away,” Wu said.

Wu made her comments during a regular appearance on GBH Boston Public Radio.

More than 100 protesters were arrested when the Emerson warehouse, located in a public alley, was evacuated late last month. At the time, protesters who spoke to GBH News suggested that police used excessive force during the eviction, with one describing the BPD’s behavior as “brutal.”

According to the mayor, a city investigation found no evidence that arrested protesters were hospitalized for injuries.

She added that “several officers” were injured during the evacuation, which “definitely involved violent situations.”

“When students or protesters come together and resist arrest, some have to do what they have to do,” Wu said, apparently referring to police.

Wu also said the city had been trying to persuade protesters to remove tents set up in the alley for “several days” before the clearance, and said that in that case the protest could continue indefinitely.

“(We) have been working with school officials to communicate directly and say there are no other issues if you take the tents down – we don’t want to get involved at all on the city side,” Wu said.

“The school even told student organizers, ‘If you take down the tents, we will provide warming rooms inside that you can use 24 hours a day,'” she added. “And the reaction was that the students, the organizers, wanted to be arrested and were going to keep the tents up in order to get arrested.”

The city is currently reviewing “hundreds” of hours of police body camera footage from the evictions, Wu said, including videos that capture the period immediately before the evictions began.

“I’ve seen some of this so far, including the opening moments, where there was another clear attempt to de-escalate with the students, and there was some kind of folding of arms and a decision that they wanted to have that interaction,” Wu said.

The mayor did not say when the body camera footage would be released to the public.

Watch the segment: