BOSTON – The 2B Alleyway at Boylston Street, which has been packed with student demonstrators from Emerson College since Sunday evening, is now empty.
“I came here this morning and they were hosing it down, so it definitely feels like they’re trying to wash away what the community has done,” said Anthony Ramlochan, a junior at Emerson College.
But there is still an uneasy feeling on the Emerson campus.
“Lots of emotional bandwidth”
Ramlochan said it is a difficult time for the school community as people are still trying to come to terms with everything that has happened.
“I know a lot of my peers, who are very focused on their schoolwork, have had a hard time with what’s going on, trying to manage both at the same time. It takes a lot of emotional bandwidth to do both,” Ramlochan said.
It was a very different scene early Thursday morning in the same alley 2B. You can see the moments on video, captured by witnesses police and protesters began clashing.
Another vantage point into Thursday morning’s unrest became available when Boston police released body camera video.
108 detainees arrested in pro-Palestinian camp
Police arrested 108 people as the encampment near Emerson College was cleared. Four police officers were injured.
“I didn’t go to bed until around 5 last night just because it was so intense. I woke up around noon to a lot of worried text messages, called my parents, they definitely have a lot of mixed feelings. Their biggest concern was my safety” , says Conor Long, also a junior at Emerson College.
JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images
Long said the protests have a significant impact, whether you are a participant or not.
“So all the seniors, it definitely hit them hard. Their freshman year was the first big fall from COVID, which was the first real semester since COVID started. So they kind of came into this chaos, the pandemic, and now they’re leaving in the chaos of it all,” Long told WBZ.
Protest at Northeastern University
Northeastern University is the latest local campus where students are joining the protest on Thursday.
Dozens of pro-Palestinians demonstrators formed a circle on Centennial Commonbefore the police entered. However, at last check, no arrests have been made on Northeastern’s campus.
Emerson students still have hope for a solution.
“That would be the best-case scenario, if Palestine were free, if all people around the world were free. I don’t know what kind of action that will require from us as individuals, as students, to make that happen. , but that’s what I would say,” Ramlochan said.
