UT Austin Palestine protest: Travis County attorney makes statement on arrests

AUSTIN, Texas - The Travis County Attorney’s Office made a statement on Tuesday, April 30, after the arrest of nearly 80 protesters at the University of Texas at Austin on Monday.

Garza said she had reached out to the university about a better way forward. She said, "While we understand the safety concerns of the university, continuing to send protesters to jail on criminal trespass charges, one of the lowest level non-violent crimes our office is presented with, is putting a tremendous strain on our criminal justice resources."

She also said she was "deeply concerned about how matters will escalate when people believe they are being prevented from exercising their right to participate in non-violent protests."

Garza also spoke about the impact on law enforcement resources.

A total of 79 people were booked into the Travis County Jail in association with the April 29 pro-Palestine protest on the UT campus, the sheriff's office said. A UT Austin source said 45 of those arrested were not affiliated with the university; 34 were students.

The University of Texas Police Department is the arresting agency for 75 of them, while the Austin Police Department made four arrests.

Seventy-eight of the people arrested are charged with Criminal Trespass. One person has an additional charge of Obstructing a Highway or Passageway, and another person is charged with Interfering with Public Duties. 

On Tuesday, University of Texas System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin P. Eltife released a statement on Monday's protest:

"As I have previously stated, any attempt to shut down or disrupt UT operations will not be tolerated.  There is no rationale whatsoever that justifies the endangerment of our students and campus environments.  Massive crowds of students, along with outside groups with absolutely no connection to UT, have intentionally caused disturbances with plans to harm our campus community.  In fact, the majority of arrests to date have occurred with agitators who are not UT students.  These activities will not be allowed.

While free speech is fundamental to our educational institutions, it is violated when it includes threats to campus safety and security or refusal to comply with institutional policies and law.  At UT Austin, I have been working closely with President Hartzell on decisions to protect its entire campus community, and we will not acquiesce on those protections under any circumstance.

I appreciate our campus police officers and we cannot thank the Texas Department of Public Safety enough for all their assistance. We will continue to call upon the DPS to secure our campus when needed. Moreover, we will make every effort to see that students who violate campus policies and outside individuals and groups that violate state law are fully prosecuted.

Nothing is more important than the safety of our students, and we will not hesitate again to use all resources available to us to keep them safe and our UT campuses open."

This protest comes after days of protests last week. 

Almost 60 people were arrested, including a FOX 7 Austin photographer, by law enforcement on the University of Texas at Austin campus on Wednesday, April 24. Charges against those arrested were all dropped the following day.

The protests in Austin are just one of many going on around the country.

At Columbia University in New York, pro-Palestinian protesters encamped in tents were told to vacate by 2 p.m. The warning came after Columbia President Minouche Shafik said the university 'will not divest from Israel' in a statement.

At New York University, police said 133 protesters were taken into custody late Monday. All were released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said police officers were hit with bottles and other objects at some of this week’s protests.

In Connecticut, police arrested 48 protesters — four of them not students — Monday at Yale University, after they refused to leave an encampment on a plaza at the center of campus.

At the University of Georgia, police and Georgia State Patrol troopers arrested multiple demonstrators during a pro-Palestine protest there on its Athens campus.