Video: a speaker at the GWU occupation on April 26 warns against arrests or suspensions, reminding everyone that students have the power to shut the school down.

On Friday, the 26th of April, DC’s Mayor Bowser ordered MPD to reject a demand from George Washington University that they forcibly clear the pro-Palestine occupation. Apparently such a sweep is illegal on the university’s private property unless proceeded by declaring the students to be “trespassers,” which in turn would require prior suspension, expulsion, or other formal orders to leave probably the entire campus.

The Washington Post reports the probable motive for this actual compliance with the law may be fear of an “optics” problem. MPD was set up for an early AM sweep against a relatively small group holding the protest area, but someone would have been guaranteed to either escape with video or shoot long range video with a zoom lens.

With threats of National Guard use at least at Columbia University and Kent State having been invoked, any use of MPD and Bagshaw’s violence against student protesters at GWU could create ugly publicity for Bowser. There would even be the risk of protesters marching on shopping areas such as Georgetown or Chinatown to shut them down. So far, the student occupations have been largely free of such spillover action.

Thus, MPD was limited to beseiging the protest, letting anyone out who needed to leave but trying to prevent anyone else from getting in.