Johns Hopkins Calls In the Police to Arrest Protesters, Ending Student Occupation

Baltimore police officers early Wednesday morning arrested five protesters who had been among those occupying a building at the Johns Hopkins University for the past week. The arrests ended a standoff that began more than a month ago as part of a protest against the university’s move toward forming a private campus police force.

On April 3 students and local community members began a sit-in at Garland Hall, an administration building near the center of Hopkins’s main campus. Protesters objected to the university’s attempt to get permission from the State of Maryland to create an armed campus police force, and to the university’s refusal to end contracts for education programs with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE.

Baltimore has an often-contentious relationship with policing. Protests over the death of Freddie Gray from injuries suffered in Baltimore Police custody led to several days of protests and clashes between citizens and police officers in 2015. The police department is currently operating under a federal consent decree after a U.S. Justice Department investigation found widespread discriminatory police practices.

On May 1 protesters took over the building, chaining themselves to stairwells, covering security cameras, and securing the outer doors. Garland Hall houses the president’s office, the registrar’s office, the office of student disability services, and other administrative functions. Ronald J. Daniels, the university’s president, condemned the protesters’ actions as violating local fire codes and as blocking other students from getting access to services. In a written statement, he called the occupation “a troubling and untenable situation.”

Daniels and Sunil Kumar, the provost, offered to negotiate with the protesters if they would leave Garland Hall. On Tuesday, Daniels offered amnesty from any university disciplinary action to anyone who left Garland Hall and didn’t return. Early on Wednesday the university asked the police to arrest the protesters, who were charged with trespassing.

The police said in a written statement that two additional protesters were arrested for “impeding vehicular traffic” and that there were no injuries.

In a separate statement a university spokeswoman said that Johns Hopkins administrators “had hoped to find a constructive means to resolve this increasingly dangerous situation, and we are disappointed that the decisions of the protesters necessitated a law-enforcement response. We remain open to dialogue and will continue to support our students as we find ways to move forward together.” The university did not make Daniels or Kumar available for comment.

At a news conference after the arrests, Turquoise Baker, a junior and a member of the Garland Sit-In group, called the protest “an effort to protect black, brown, queer, and all marginalized peoples who Hopkins is actively endangering.” She accused the university of “infantile intimidation tactics” such as sending out emails to advisers and parents of protesters about the occupation, and called the university’s actions “inexcusable.”

If created, Hopkins’s police force would patrol the main campus as well as the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus and the Peabody Institute conservatory. Several public universities in the Baltimore area already have campus police departments, including Morgan State and Coppin State Universities and the University of Baltimore.

Legislation authorizing Johns Hopkins to create a private police force was passed last month by both chambers of the Maryland General Assembly. Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, has expressed support for the bill.

Lee Gardner writes about the management of colleges and universities, higher-education marketing, and other topics. Follow him on Twitter @_lee_g, or email him at lee.gardner@chronicle.com.