U. of Utah police arrest prominent student protest leader, prompting rally outside jail

The second day of protesting at the University of Utah erupted when campus police zip-tied and arrested one of the student leaders who has been prominent in leading the support for Palestine here.

The student was detained less than 10 minutes into the rally Tuesday and after 19 protesters had been arrested Monday night in a violent scene at the U. where officers in riot gear had charged into those rallying.

The roughly 300 demonstrators who returned to the U. on Tuesday — and who then moved their rally to the Salt Lake County jail — gathered around as five officers pinned the student leader on the ground and secured his hands behind his back.

They chanted: “Let him go, let him go.”

One campus police officer snapped back at the crowd, “Shut up, kids.”

A tense yelling match then started between officers and protesters until U. police Capt. Jason Hinojosa led his staff away and back to the perimeter of the rally. Students continued to shout, “pigs” and “shame!” as they stood in front of the school’s administration building, the same place they had rallied and set up tents the night before.

Several mobile police surveillance cameras have since been installed there.

The U. released a statement on the arrest of the student leader saying he was targeted by officers “based on an individual’s actions” on Monday. University spokesperson Rebecca Walsh added that the student leader was being screened for trespassing, disorderly conduct and failure to disperse, as well as an additional potential charge for resisting arrest Tuesday. Any of those would be misdemeanors; as such, The Salt Lake Tribune is not naming the student leader who has not yet been charged.

Gabriela Merida, another student leading the protests with the on-campus club Mecha, said the student leader had walked off by himself to a restroom. He started yelling and Merida and others turned around to see him lying on the grass.

“What is happening? What are you doing?” students shouted. “Why is he being arrested? On what charges?”

The student leader is now the 20th individual arrested for the rallies at the U. and the fifth student. The rallies here have been part of a nationwide movement at college campuses, where hundreds have been arrested or suspended for their Pro-Palestine support and encampments. The students are calling on their schools to divest endowments from Israel and weapons companies that have been benefitting from the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The U. has a $1.47 billion endowment, but it is unclear how much of that is tied to the opposed sources.

At the Tuesday rally, school employees walked around handing out a paper that listed rules and resources for protesters, as well as consequences if they violated the law. Several of those in attendance crumpled them up. Student leaders condemned the handouts as they shouted into the megaphone.

“You violently suppressed our peaceful encampment last night,” Merida yelled. “You will forever be remembered for the violent violation of our First Amendment rights.”

The second rally also came after U. President Taylor Randall had issued a statement about the protests, saying the school would continue to “enforce the rule of law” with encampments. Students panned that response, as well.

One protester held a sign that said: “Taylor Randall [would] rather arrest his students instead of divesting from genocide.”

The students have demanded a meeting with Randall and have not yet had one. After the Tuesday rally on campus, the president released another statement.

“I ask for the community’s patience as we manage a complex situation and balance free expression with lawful conduct,” he said. “We are investing time and resources now to support free speech and prevent further escalation.”

Shortly after starting, the group left the U. campus to rally at the Salt Lake County jail where the arrested student leader had been taken for processing.

“We want to free our comrade,” one woman shouted.

They rallied for hours, chanting and banging on kitchen pots and pans. They said they wanted the student leader to be able to hear them from inside. They called him “a political prisoner.”

For hours, they vowed not to leave until he was released from custody. Some stayed there overnight, lying on the grass next to signs that warned “No trespassing.”

The student leader had been arrested on campus just after 6 p.m. Tuesday. He was released from jail after about 12 hours of holding and processing, just before 6 a.m. Wednesday.

“It is absolutely unacceptable for police to hold people in custody for this long,” Mecha wrote in an Instagram story.

That processing time is fairly standard for most arrestees taken to the Salt Lake County facility, according to jail staff standing around the rally, who said it can run anywhere from eight hours to 12.

The students initially crowded onto the ramp at the jail where those who are released walk out. Jail staff said they were disrupting the operations there and asked them to move to the sidewalk, which they did.

Overall, it was a calmer scene there than at the U. on Monday night. Law enforcement at the jail set up police cars around the border of the property but did not take any actions to force students to leave — even as the initial group that got there ballooned to about 400.

At one point, the protesters moved onto the adjacent street, 900 West in South Salt Lake, filling it from side to side and blocking traffic for 30 minutes as they marched with Palestinian flags and signs that said “Free Palestine.”

Staff from the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah accompanied them. The organization had released a statement earlier in the day, calling on the university to allow students the space to protest.

“We are not just students. We are history makers,” said Dani Salinas-Tovar, who just completed her second year at the U. “They cannot ignore our voices.”

Salinas-Tovar talked to the crowd about previous protests at the U. that have led to change, mentioning the calls to divest from Apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s and rallies against the war in Vietnam in the 1960s.

She said: “We are walking the same path as our brothers and sisters before us.”