April 28, 2024 (EIRNS)—Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, and Megan Green, the St. Louis, Missouri, President of the Board of Aldermen, were arrested along with dozens of students and activists on the night of April 27 while attending a peaceful anti-genocide protest at Washington University in St. Louis. Green said that the protest was “jovial” and “loving” before the police arrived according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Stein and two St. Louis aldermen tried to negotiate with the police and university officials to prevent confrontation with law enforcement. Police from four local jurisdictions and campus police rejected negotiations and began to make arrests. One 70-year-old protester said, “The [police] are making the same mistakes that they made 50 years ago,” referring to arrests of students during campus protests against the Vietnam War.
On April 26, an open letter signed by over 130 Washington University professors and staff was delivered to the university administration condemning the university’s “arbitrary and heavy-handed response” to the peaceful protests on campus. The open letter continued, “One should be concerned that the attacks on freedom of speech and academic freedom have increased significantly in our country and on this campus.”
