College protests updates: Police crackdown leads to hundreds of arrests

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., visited student protesters at Columbia University Friday.

Hundreds of counterprotesters also gathered near Columbia's campus on Friday morning waving Israeli flags and calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza.

Ocasio-Cortez has criticized the university's decision to arrest students.

"Not only did Columbia make the horrific decision to mobilize NYPD on their own students, but the units called in have some of the most violent reputations on the force. NYPD had promised the city they wouldn’t deploy SRG to protests. So why are these counterterror units here?" Ocasio-Cortez said on X Wednesday.

In another post, she called the arrests a "dangerous" act.

"Calling in police enforcement on nonviolent demonstrations of young students on campus is an escalatory, reckless, and dangerous act. It represents a heinous failure of leadership that puts people’s lives at risk. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms," Ocasio-Cortez said on X.

Students were arrested and charged with trespass at Ohio State University after refusing to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment late Thursday.

"Well established university rules prohibit camping and overnight events. Demonstrators exercised their first amendment rights for several hours and were then instructed to disperse. Individuals who refused to leave after multiple warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass," the university said in a statement to ABC News.

Videos show protesters chanting and tussling with officers outside the Ohio State University student union building. In another video, police can be heard issuing a loudspeaker warning to a dispersing crowd at OSU as a helicopter flies overhead.

Another video shows an officer tackling someone to the ground as other officers force people back and another person falls to the ground.

-ABC News' Matthew Holroyd and Ahmad Hemingway

Columbia University sent a message to the community late Thursday night, saying discussions with student protesters are "ongoing."
"The talks have shown progress and are continuing as planned," Columbia said in its message.

"For several days, a small group of faculty, administrators, and University Senators have been in dialogue with student organizers to discuss the basis for dismantling the encampment, dispersing, and following University policies going forward," the message continued. "We have our demands; they have theirs. A formal process is underway and continues."

-ABC News' Ahmad Hemingway

Georgia's Department of Public Service said they used a Taser and pepper balls as they attempted to control the crowd of protesters at Emory University but did not use tear gas.

DPS released an accounting of their response on campus just a short while ago.

"On April 25, 2024, at 8:30 am, the Emory Police Department and Atlanta Police Department requested the assistance of DPS with an encampment protest at Emory University. Georgia State Troopers and Motor Carrier Officers responded to break up the encampment but were met with protestors who threw bottles and refused to leave," the statement began.

"As Troopers and Officers began to take the protestors into custody, one actively resisted arrest," DPS said, noting they used a Taser on the individual as they "continued to resist."

DPS said during its response to the encampment, "Troopers deployed pepper balls to control the unruly crowd but did not use tear gas."

Charges are being handled by the Emory Police Department, DPS said.

-ABC News' Darren Reynolds