D.C. police just schooled a university on freedom of speech rights
While George Washington University is suspending students for protesting, police said they won’t arrest them

Perspective by Petula Dvorak
Columnist
Updated April 29, 2024 at 10:44 p.m. EDT | Published April 29, 2024 at 6:32 p.m. EDT



Campus police watch protesters at an encampment at George Washington University in D.C. on Friday. (Jordan Tovin for The Washington Post)

D.C. police showed the rest of America how to respond to this historic wave of campus protests across the nation: They did nothing.

And it was perfect.

While other police forces are providing highlight reels of enforcers marching on university quads in riot gear (from California to New York, Illinois to Texas) or galloping in on horseback (just Texas), officers carrying and dragging students away or shockingly slamming an Emory University professor to the ground in Georgia, the cops here in the nation’s capital gave the ivory tower a lesson in constitutional rights.

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“This activity has remained peaceful,” a D.C. police spokesperson said, explaining why there have been no arrests at the George Washington University campus, despite the administration’s request for backup.

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By Petula Dvorak
Petula is a columnist for The Post's local team who writes about homeless shelters, gun control, high heels, high school choirs, the politics of parenting, jails, abortion clinics, mayors, modern families, strip clubs and gas prices, among other things. Before coming to The Post, she covered social issues, crime and courts. Twitter https://twitter.com/petulad