Presidential Candidate Arrested At Protest

Green Party candidate for president Jill Stein was arrested last week for her role in an anti-Israel protest on a college campus. The arrest was one of dozens over the last several weeks as student protesters have attempted to occupy parts of various university campuses.

Stein was arrested alongside about 100 other people at Washington University in St. Louis last week.

The candidate’s campaign manager Jason Call said that she participated in a protest calling “for the university to divest from Boeing, which manufactures munitions used in the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza at their nearby St. Charles facility.”

Following the arrest the candidate said that the arrest was “kind of scary.” She also said that she was charged for allegedly attacking a police officer. She claimed that instead, a bicycle ran into her.

Stein said that she was handcuffed and sent through a medical exam. She said that she didn’t know if anyone “knew” she was there.

“I was completely led through this process completely blind,” she said.

The candidate said that she spent about six hours in jail.

She also called Israel’s ongoing campaign against the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip a “genocide.”

BREAKING: Surfaced video of Jill Stein's first interview after arrest. Via @ksdknews. pic.twitter.com/z9tWiAp6MU

— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) April 28, 2024

The arrest followed the clearing out of a student occupation of an academic building at Columbia University, which resulted in more than 100 arrests. This included the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Omar later attended one of the rallies and made a statement in support of the students.

From Columbia, the protests have spread to a number of colleges nationwide, especially expensive private universities. This includes the widespread use of tents to create encampments and challenging college authorities to remove them.

At some colleges such as the University of Texas at Austin police clashed with the protesters and removed the occupation, arresting dozens. However, Columbia has remained hesitant to remove the student encampment.

There may be hope that the students will end their protest when the semester ends in several weeks.