Demand Progress

From Columbia University to UCLA and all across the country, college students are exercising their constitutionally protected rights to free speech and assembly to protest U.S. complicity in the horrific violence against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Yet, the right to protest hasn’t stopped violent police crackdowns at Columbia and City College in New York, the campus of UCLA, and other colleges. And it hasn’t stopped GOP Speaker Mike Johnson from calling for President Biden to send in the National Guard to stop protests.¹ It’s a shocking set of threats and use of force against students calling out for peace.

President Biden must look to the history of antiwar and civil rights protests, and to the U.S. Constitution, to stop further violent crackdowns against peaceful pro-peace protests.

Sign the petition: Tell President Biden, no National Guard on college campuses. Reaffirm the right to protest now!

"Myself and many other students have just felt horror seeing the swiftness with which the NYPD came and deployed themselves onto our campus," said one Columbia student to NPR.² It was akin to a military operation, the New York police descending on two different campuses in one night earlier this week to arrest hundreds of students protesting for peace.

Deploying the National Guard on college campuses would be a violent disaster. President Biden has the opportunity to show leadership and prevent further violent law enforcement escalations at campus protests.

Add your name: No National Guard on college campuses!

Sources:

1. Politico, "Johnson demands Biden send in National Guard during raucous Columbia visit,” April 24, 2024.
2. NPR, "New York police arrest 300 people as they clear Hamilton Hall at Columbia University,” May 1, 2024.