The Chicago Maroon reported live from UChicago United for Palestine’s (UCUP) October 11 rally, which ended with the arrest of three protesters.
Protesters locked Cobb Gate, which stands at the entrance of the main quad, before proceeding north toward Ratner Athletics Center, where several police officers used pepper spray and batons on protesters. The rally, which began at 2:30 p.m., morphed into a brawl involving at least 200 University- and community-affiliated protesters, 20 University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officers, and more than 30 Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers.
Over the course of the afternoon, protesters sprayed graffiti on the Nuclear Energy Statue and its surrounding area, Eckhardt Research Center, Regenstein Library, and Max Palevsky Residential Commons. Facilities Services removed most of the graffiti Friday evening, though graffiti remained on the Nuclear Energy sculpture and the Regenstein as of noon on Saturday, October 12.
Full coverage of the day’s events is available here.
1:30 p.m., October 12
Facilities Services has removed most of the graffiti from yesterday’s protest. “Free Gaza” remains written on the Fermi memorial and the outside of Regenstein Library behind the memorial.
6:12 p.m.
The University released a statement to the Maroon addressing details from the day’s protests.
“At approximately 3:20 p.m. Friday, a group of protesters who had marched from a rally on campus used locks to block access to campus through a gate on 57th Street, and began spray-painting buildings and public art near the corner of Ellis Avenue and 57th Street. Officers from the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) and the Chicago Police Department (CPD) responded to the scene. Protesters instigated confrontations with police by physically surrounding a police car, further vandalizing and damaging property, blocking the public road, and striking police officers who responded. UCPD arrested two individuals – one for criminal damage and one for battery to a police officer. The Chicago Police Department arrested one individual for battery to a police officer.
“The University of Chicago is fundamentally committed to upholding the rights of protesters to express their views on any issue. At the same time, University policies make it clear that protests cannot jeopardize public safety, disrupt the University’s operations, or involve the destruction of property.”
5 p.m.
Facility Services is removing the graffiti from various sites across campus with a pressure washer.
4:00 p.m.
Cobb Gate has been unlocked.
3:58 p.m.
During the protest, graffiti reading “free Gaza,” “hands off Lebanon,” and “fuck the bombs” was written on the Fermi memorial outside of Mansueto Library.
3:54 p.m.
The police and protesters have completely dispersed from the site of the protest.
3:51 p.m.
The Maroon has confirmed that UChicago Police Sergeant Grays Sr. sprayed at least one protester and a Chicago Police Department captain with pepper spray during the protest.
3:45 p.m.
The protesters are dispersing under advice to stay masked “until you’re farther away.”
3:43 p.m.
The protesters have congregated outside of the SMART Museum. More CPD officers have arrived.
3:40 p.m.
Protesters have told the Maroon that several police officers have pepper sprayed into the crowd. One protester kicked a police officer.
3:37 p.m.
Police used batons on protesters and the Maroon has reports of pepper spray. At least three arrests have been made, including one made after a brief chase.
3:35 p.m.
UCPD officers have entered the protest wearing riot gear.
3:34 p.m.
Protesters are chanting “Let him go.” The Maroon cannot confirm whether an arrest is being made.
A protester hit a UCPD patrol car’s side mirror with a rock.
3 p.m.
At approximately 3 p.m., the protest proceeded through Cobb Gate on the north end of the central quad. Once all of the protesters were through, the protesters pushed the gate closed and affixed a bike lock to keep the gate shut.
Protesters chanted “Pigs go home” to police officers and “Intifada, intifada, long live the intifada.”
2:45 p.m.
At 2:45 p.m. on Friday, October 11, UChicago United for Palestine hosted a walkout and accompanying protest on the main quad. There were approximately 80 protesters and eight UCPD officers at the beginning of the rally.
Correction, October 11, 2024, 6:40 p.m.: Previous versions of this article incorrectly referred to Cobb Gate, the exterior gate to the main quad on 57th Street, as Hull Gate. Hull Gate is the interior gate closer to the main quad.
This is a developing story. This article will continue to be updated with more information as the story progresses.
Zach / Oct 12, 2024 at 12:51 pm
why are the faces of people putting on a public demonstration of their beliefs blurred, but not those of people showing up for work to just do their job?
Pete Bootijudge / Oct 12, 2024 at 5:16 pm
Because the Maroon has a secret DEI Board who would not want to see so many of their protected class being exposed in violent criminal activity.
Alum / Oct 11, 2024 at 9:53 pm
What devilry spawns this endless parade of freakazoids? What a waste of school resources and admission slots.
Another alum / Oct 12, 2024 at 12:01 am
I’d wager most all are from the affirmative action cohorts. Not one Asian or white in sight. This is not to say certain demographics are innately prone to shriekery “activism,” rather that they are susceptible to indoctrination by the wokerati, who compel them to internalize a victim complex that manifests as rabid outrage such as what is now on display.
James Watson / Oct 12, 2024 at 1:55 pm
BULLSEYE
The woke mind virus has variable infection rates.
Spray paint has no autocorrect / Oct 11, 2024 at 7:22 pm
It said “hands off Lebonan”
David Bettleman / Oct 11, 2024 at 5:45 pm
The culture of peace unveils itself once more, draped in its customary cloak of hypocrisy. What follows this symphony of malice? A procession of self-anointed martyrs, emerging from the hallowed halls of the woke madrasa, their chants like ancient invocations of chaos.
They adorn themselves in the armor of moral superiority, engaged in a tribalistic ballet, where every spray of graffiti, every act of destruction, is not mere vandalism, but an offering at the altar of performative justice.
They pirouette in their rage, imagining their defilement of sacred memorials as some grand, transcendent act of resistance. But in truth, it is nothing more than a crude dance of self-glorification, a pageant of the absurd.
Like the virtue-signaling apostles of BLM before them, they revel in their own reflection, each act of defiance feeding their insatiable hunger for recognition. These choreographers of chaos, waltzing through the ruins of reason. They prance through the streets, their cries for intifada ringing hollow, a discordant chorus in the theater of outrage. Their tribal rituals—the clenched fists, the raised voices, the rank smells—are but a hollow echo, devoid of meaning, a violent pantomime that reduces the complexity of history to a crude, primal display of rage.
And yet, amidst this tragic pageantry, a moment of reckoning: the police, those stoic arbiters of order, enter the stage to break this fevered dance. Like a storm sweeping away the debris of a tempest, they bring an end to this savage choreography.
The baton meets the chaos, and suddenly, the frenzied rhythm halts. But until the universities—these temples of indoctrination, where the gospel of DEI reigns supreme—cease their worship of this tribalistic fervor, the dance will resume.
The stage is set for another performance, as academia, once the sanctuary of thought, continues to decay beneath the weight of its own illusions.
Finn Hartnett / Oct 11, 2024 at 8:38 pm
Go outside, Daniel
Tim Tavern / Oct 12, 2024 at 12:24 am
Daniel has nothing to do with this. Stick to shilling for black causes through your sports pieces, since that’s clearly where your comfort zone lies. After all, when the sports are black-dominated, it’s easy to see why your anti-white agenda slips in so effortlessly.
Jimmy Breslin / Oct 13, 2024 at 11:23 am
BOOM
He shoots…he scores!
Well said Tim.
Hey Finn….the truth’s a bitch.
Clint Eastwood / Oct 12, 2024 at 1:59 pm
Why….so you and your woke lot of antifa lunatics can “express” yourself to Daniel as you did with the Police Officers brought in to defend The University.
Hey Finn, grow a set and become a man. Wake up from your woke anti-Semitic lunacy.
Your parents are disappointed in you.
The University made a MASSIVE mistake admitting you.
Rod Danger / Oct 12, 2024 at 2:14 pm
I just found this:
Finn Hartnett, Head Sports Editor
Finn Hartnett is a fourth-year at the College from New York City. He was given the Sports Editor title in June 2021, and since then he has enjoyed the work greatly, whether that means interviewing people at local sports events or writing ballads to his favorite Chicago Cub. Occasionally, he contributes to the News and Grey City sections as well. In addition to The Maroon, Finn has contributed articles to the website CATALYST and the Long Island newspaper Dan’s Papers. He has also interned for the non-profit investigative newsroom New York Focus. In his free time, he enjoys petting his cat.
Dear Mr. Nondorf….THIS is what you wasted a coveted spot in The College on?!?!?!?
“In his free time, he enjoys petting his cat”, right after he shrieks at the patriarchy, drops his tears onto Mother Earth in penance for Climate Change, insults a Cop for protecting civil society from savages, and then puts his hair in a man bun, waits for his Prius to charge, and speeds off to a safe place……OMFG.
I don’t understand / Oct 12, 2024 at 10:05 pm
Why is the Maroon censoring replies to Finn’s comment? Either delete his caustic remark or allow others to respond.
Student / Oct 12, 2024 at 11:48 am
It is heartening to see alums putting their well-honed minds to good use. First John Jumper’s Nobel Prize, now you gracing the comment section with your lyrical defense of some cop tackling some nineteen year old. There are indeed decay and illusion in a university that preaches the sanctity of civil discourse and free speech while investing in the bombing of schools and universities.
Roto Rooter / Oct 12, 2024 at 5:14 pm
Ahhh yes, the poor nineteen year old victim who was violent….what a victim. Guessing an affirmative action admit.
What a bad man in the police uniform upholding our laws….he’s the evil one in the story.
What woke gibberish.
The only decay you should note is in the quality of newly admitted students.
You are a walking example of what The University does not need more of.
I PRAY that The University EXPELS ALL students who engage in violence or vandalism or breaks the University’s code of conduct.
FLUSH THE TOILET WITH THE VICTIMS OF THE WOKE MIND VIRUS !
Anonymous undergraduate / Oct 12, 2024 at 9:59 pm
As a fellow current student, I’d like to apologize on behalf of this dolt. This “student” and their ilk give us all a bad name. They are blissfully trapped in the ideological quicksand that the university now calls education. Naturally, they’d leap to the defense of a vandal, viewing him not as a criminal, but as some sort of tragic martyr for the woke cause. When you’re a die-hard DEI zealot, personal responsibility is nothing but a relic of a bygone era, and every act of wanton destruction is easily justified as a crusade for “equity” or whatever hollow term they’re worshiping this week.
And of course, they couldn’t resist the wild, laughably irrelevant leap to “bombing schools”—because when you lack substance, absurd hyperbole is always the fallback.
Look. The real decay here isn’t in the university holding a vandal accountable for their actions; it’s in the minds of my peers like this one, who’ve been so thoroughly indoctrinated by the DEI cult that they’ve become incapable of distinguishing between accountability and oppression. They see every consequence as an existential threat to their fragile worldview, so naturally, this self-anointed champion of campus justice clutches their pearls the moment someone actually faces repercussions.
I can’t wait to escape this ideological grooming factory. Day after day I’m forced to witness professors foisting woke nonsense on students as if it’s some kind of intellectual gospel. From my CS professors chiding Supreme Court justices as “crazed radicals,” my CIV professor shoving Obama’s ideals down our throats, to my SOSC professor, a minority, who once loudly proclaimed, “This is OUR time.” Every lecture, every discussion, is just another opportunity for them to push their DEI agenda, turning what should be an education into little more than a propaganda session. It’s all about regurgitating the same tired talking points. Anyone who dares question the narrative is a heretic.
Claire Ity / Oct 13, 2024 at 11:40 am
G-d bless you!
You give us hope for the future.
Dear Mr. Nondorf,
Please find this student, sequence his DNA, then go looking to fill an entire entering class with his kind.
Stay strong….and don’t forget to vote the right way on Nov 5!