Updated: May 1, 2024, at 12:27 a.m.
The Republican heads of two congressional committees wrote a letter to top D.C. officials demanding to know why D.C. police reportedly refused to shut down the GW pro-Palestinian encampment.
Reps. Virginia Foxx and James Comer — who chair the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, respectively — wrote that they were “alarmed” by the Metropolitan Police Department’s reported refusal to clear the encampment. The letter, addressed to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and MPD Chief Pamela Smith, demands the pair answer questions about officials’ handling of the encampment.
A spokesperson for Bowser did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Republican lawmakers wrote MPD’s reported refusal to clear the encampment hinders GW’s attempts at protecting Jewish students on campus — the pair called the protesters “radical, antisemitic, and unlawful.” The letter demands both parties answer questions about why the calls were declined before May 9, a day before the last day of final exams.
“It is deeply disturbing that while GWU has attempted to take concrete measures to protect the safety of its Jewish student body from persecution and harassment, it is hindered by the MPD’s refusal to provide assistance clearing out the encampment, over fears of public criticism,” the letter states.
The letter comes one day after an alleged arrest attempt caused demonstrators to knock down the barricades that enclosed the encampments on University Yard.
The letter continues to state that the inaction of MPD and D.C. is “out of sync” with other police departments and local governments across the country. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protestors have been arrested since encampments and protests in solidarity for people in Gaza erupted throughout the nation.
The pair of Republicans reiterated that the Committee on Oversight and Accountability has legislative authority over D.C. in “all cases” and that if MPD does not act, Congress will be “obligated to exercise its legislative powers to do so.”
“Chairman Comer and I are talking about what to do next,” Foxx told a Hatchet reporter outside the House floor. She didn’t explicitly say what actions they may take.
She added, “D.C. comes under the authority of the Oversight Committee, so that’s what we’re talking here.”
The pair of Republicans aren’t the only ones to take issue with MPD. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent a letter to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Tuesday calling on her office to reverse its Friday decision to avoid clearing the encampment — he said the move showed D.C. should not become a state.
“Whether it is due to incompetence or sympathy for the cause of these Hamas supporters, you are failing to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens by letting a terrorist-supporting mob take over a large area of a university,” the letter reads. “Your actions are a good reminder of why Washington, D.C. must never become a state.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said Tuesday that members of Congress will look to have a hearing on MPD’s reported refusal to clear the encampment.
An MPD spokesperson said the department doesn’t comment on “operational tactics and procedures.” The spokesperson said GW “has the lead” in the response to demonstrations on GW’s campus.
“Demonstrations are also occurring on public space adjacent to the university,” the spokesperson said. “MPD will continue to monitor this First Amendment activity, both on and off GWU property. This activity has remained peaceful.”
On Tuesday, GW for Israel launched a petition calling on MPD to remove all “violent and antisemitic agitators.” During the encampment, signs reading “Students will leave when Israelis leave,” and “Students will go back home when Israelis go back to Europe, US, etc (their real homes)” have been called out by Jewish on Campus, a national organization focused on raising awareness to antisemitism on college campuses. A Friday New York Post story detailed reactions to a sign that stated “Final Solution” accompanied by Israeli and Palestinian flags that was carried by an older man who does not appear to be a student.
For the past six days, the encampments have remained largely peaceful, with a few isolated verbal confrontations between counterprotesters and demonstrators. Throughout the week, organizers hosted an array of cultural events, including a Shabbat dinner with Jewish Voices for Peace and a cultural show and tell with demonstrators from places like Hawaii and Puerto Rico expressing their solidarity.
Late Sunday night, after police detained and then released a student inside the U-Yard encampment, students tore down GW barricades around U-Yard. They piled them into the center of the encampment, where they rallied into early Monday morning. On Monday, U-Yard was calm, with more than a hundred people in the encampment attending teach-ins, talking in small groups in the grass and drawing with chalk on the ground.
In 2017, D.C. paid $1.6 million to settle lawsuits against the District for the excessive use of force by MPD officers on protesters during the 2017 inauguration of former President Donald Trump. In February 2023, three protestors sued MPD over its use of nonlethal weapons during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
This post was updated to include a statement from an MPD spokesperson.
