JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Last year, thousands of people protesting Israel's war in Gaza were arrested on U.S. college campuses, but many had their charges dropped. Last week in Michigan, the cases against seven protesters were dismissed, closing a chapter for them. Michigan Public's Beenish Ahmed reports.
BEENISH AHMED, BYLINE: It was still dark when dozens of police officers in face shields began to move toward a large group of protesters at the University of Michigan last May. University officials said the tent encampment on a public square posed a fire hazard, so police were there to remove it.
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UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Move back. Move back.
AHMED: Police used batons and pepper spray to push protesters back. Most of them complied, eventually. Authorities charged seven with resisting arrest - a felony in Michigan - for allegedly putting objects like tables and bikes between them and police or pushing up against officers with their bodies. The state attorney general, Dana Nessel, stepped in to bring those charges. Last month, defense attorneys tried to get Nessel to recuse herself. They argued that she took on a case that typically would have been handled on a local level. Defense attorneys also said she was biased against the protesters because she called a Palestinian rallying cry - from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free - antisemitic.
Nessel, in a statement, called allegations of bias, quote, "baseless and absurd." She said she stood by her charging decisions, but dismissed the cases because she said they were no longer a good use of her department's resources. Defense attorney Amir Makled said the dismissal was a victory.
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AMIR MAKLED: And today, the state of Michigan agrees...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Woo.
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MAKLED: ...That you still have the right to speak up.
AHMED: According to Harvard researchers, around 4,000 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested on college campuses between October 2023 and the end of last year. At least a few dozen protesters have been charged with felonies across the U.S. In many of those cases, authorities allege activists got violent, they fought back against police or caused serious property damage. But many of the protesters' charges have been dropped or dismissed. Diala Shamas is with the left-leaning Center for Constitutional Rights. She says that shows protesters' actions were, by and large, lawful.
DIALA SHAMAS: There wasn't any basis for the charges and that these people should have never been arrested in the first place and that they were part of these sweeps to clamp down on the campuses.
AHMED: Last week, pro-Palestinian protesters again took to college campuses, including at Columbia, where police arrested about 80 people who occupied a building on Wednesday. In Michigan, protesters whose charges were dismissed were defiant. Activist Sammie Lewis stood alongside other defendants outside of the courthouse last week.
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SAMMIE LEWIS: When we don't cower to repression, this is what happens. We win.
AHMED: But with a new wave of protests and arrests erupting on college campuses, the fight might not be over yet.
For NPR News, I'm Beenish Ahmed in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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