INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana State Police and protesters in Bloomington have clashed twice in the last four days.
ISP Superintendent Doug Carter said troopers were attempting to help the Indiana University Police Department break up protester encampments near Dunn Meadow. He added that state police had meetings with IU officials before troopers were sent to Bloomington.
“We are watching Palestinian protests all over the country at other universities, so we had a pretty good idea of what the message was going to be,” Carter said of what state police expected to find in Bloomington. “But what we didn’t understand at the time was that it was going to be, the language would be hate language.”
IUPD announced that more than 30 people were arrested during Thursday’s protests. University police indicated that 23 people were arrested during Saturday’s protests.
IU has policies that ban the establishment of encampments without prior permission. Carter said the university asked state police to help them enforce that rule.
“One of the rules is that you cannot encamp, there will be no encampment,” Carter said. “There will be no tents. You will not be using the bathroom in a 5 gallon bucket.”
Carter said troopers also got involved in breaking up protests and encampments because free speech was turning into hate speech. He added that some of the things protesters were saying were antisemitic in nature.
“The first amendment covers free speech,” Carter said, “but not hateful speech.”
Carter emphasized that if unauthorized encampments stay up and hate speech continues, state police will likely have to get involved again.
“I don’t look forward to it,” Carter said. “I don’t like it. But again, there’s got to be a point in time where we do what we know is right, even if sometimes it’s a bit uncomfortable.”
Carter’s words clashed with those of Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson, who publicly criticized state police over the weekend.
“I also spoke of the need to remain peaceful in protesting and ensure de-escalation rather than use of force,” Thomson said while issuing a clarifying statement on Sunday. “I was not clear in that statement. I was referring to the state police advance on peaceful protesters when I believe all routes to de-escalation had not been met.”
Thomson had previously indicated that she had specifically instructed the Bloomington Police Department to not get involved with breaking up the protests.
“The Bloomington Police Department has had no involvement in policing the protests,” Thomson said on Saturday, “no involvement in the dismantling of the encampment, has made no arrests related to the protests and has my instruction not to be involved in these activities.”
Carter responded to the mayor’s comments during an interview with FOX59 and CBS4, noting that their stances on the issue differ to some degree.
“It’s really unfortunate that the mayor has chosen to take the tactic that she has rather than to base her opinion on what happened, and what she thinks rather than what she knows,” Carter said.
Carter also insisted the troopers did attempt to speak with protesters before further action was taken.
“We tried to rationalize with them on Thursday,” Carter said. “We let it ride on Friday, and then again we engaged them on Saturday again after multiple attempts to try and rationalize with them. And I can tell you I personally tried on the front line, and we had people there, troopers there, and the last two days along with IUPD that did their very best”
IUPD did not announce any additional arrests on Sunday. In a statement released Sunday evening, IU officials encouraged those who were detained for trespass to engage in an appeals process with IUPD.
The university also announced that a student organization has formally requested permission to erect temporary structures in Dunn Meadow. IU officials noted that approval of the request is contingent upon a set of “mutually agreed upon parameters.” The university anticipates the request will be approved, and possibly renewed, in 48-hour increments.
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