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.”
5:00 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 the 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.
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.