By Hank Russell
Twenty-nine protestors who were part of the Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP) were arrested in front of the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook. This was confirmed by Long Island Life & Politics.
According to university spokesperson Kelly Drossel, the arrests occurred on May 2 at 12:15 a.m. Those who were arrested included “students, faculty members and others from outside our campus community,” she stated, adding that they were under arrest for “violating various legal statutes and university policies.”
LILP reached out to the Suffolk County Police Department to confirm the arrests and was referred to the university police department (UPD). LILP also contacted the UPD to confirm, but have not heard back as of press time. LILP also asked the New York State Police, which told this reporter that they were “just the assisting agency for this incident” and referred them to the university.
As previously reported in LILP, members of the SJP occupied the property in front of The Staller Center on April 30 to form the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Despite the encounter with university police regarding the use of tarps in the encampment, there were no incidents of violence at the time.
A member of the SJP posted a video on the group’s Instagram page explaining how university police “grabbed our protestors brutally” and told them to vacate the premises. “but we’re not going anywhere because this is our university. We’re students here, we belong here and we have every right to peacefully protest, and no one’s going to take that away from us.”
The SJP called for an emergency protest on May 2 at 4 p.m. in front of the fountain at the administration building, demanding that the university drop all charges against the protestors, expunge the students’ suspensions and divest from “genocide.”
When asked if any of the demonstrators were not students but paid to cause damage and agitate the opposition — as new York City Mayor Eric Adams alleged when speaking about these protests at the city college campuses, Drossel replied, “We cannot confirm whether or not demonstrators were paid to be there.”
LILP has reached out to SJP for comment, but has not heard back as of press time.