Healey says she supports police actions at Emerson, Northeastern

In a recent interview with GBH News, Governor Maura Healey said she supports the way police have been used to break up pro-Palestinian encampments at Boston-area universities, a decision that has been hotly debated as some say police actions have been violent. 

Healey’s response, prompted by a question from Jim Braude, host of a monthly “Ask The Governor” segment, elicited booing and shouting from members of the crowd watching the interview.

Healey’s support comes after Gaza solidarity encampments at Northeastern University and Emerson University led to the arrests of around 100 people at each school last month, and the use of police force at Emerson left some protesters injured.

Audience member said Healey is defending “funding of genocide”

The original question came from a person who identified themselves as Meg and said they had a question about childcare and education. Instead, Meg launched into a condemnation of Healey’s approach to campus protests, saying they were “deeply disturbed” that the governor was “perpetuating accusations against student protesters, including Jewish students, of antisemitism, in order to justify the violent police response.”

“This is dangerous and manufactures consent for violence against student protesters,” Meg said at the Friday interview, to cheers from the live audience. “Why are you protecting the funding of genocide over the wellbeing of students in the Commonwealth and how can you claim to care about children and students when you are playing dangerous political word games instead of addressing the ongoing genocide?”

Braude criticized Meg for her “lie” about the intended question, but after Healey talked about early childcare initiatives, asked Healey to follow up on Meg’s question. 

Healey said that she feels for the “agony” and “devastation” taking place in both Gaza and Israel and said she has always been “committed to fighting anti-semitism, Islamophobia, racism, hatred, and bigotry in all its forms.”

“We have a right to protest in this country, including on college campuses,” Healey continued. “It is also the case that there is a difference between protest and violence and threats of violence and disruption of students’ access to safe education.”

Healey then said that she supports calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war but agrees with President Joe Biden’s decision to continue sending military aid to Israel without conditions. 

Braude then asked if the governor is “comfortable” with police having been sent in to break up protests at Northeastern and Emerson. Healey gave a resounding “yes” without elaborating. 

Some call police actions at Emerson, Northeastern “violent”

Students at Emerson said police used excessive violence and that people were “beaten and bloodied,” suffered concussions, and were cut by zip ties during arrests. A recording obtained by The Boston Globe revealed an officer asking the dispatcher what hospital two protesters were being taken to, despite police initially saying no protesters had been injured during arrests.

At Northeastern, 98 people were arrested April 27 after the school said “professional organizers” had “infiltrated” the encampment and pointed to “virulent anti-semitic slurs” being used at the demonstration. The school referred to an instance where someone said “kill the Jews,” which video showed was said an pro-Israel counter-protester. 

It’s not clear whether that was the instance the school was referring to, but Northeastern maintained in a follow-up statement that such speech has no place on campus regardless of who said it. 

The nationwide Gaza solidarity encampment movement is calling on colleges and universities to cut ties with Israel, which includes divesting endowment holdings from Israeli companies. Students also want their schools to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, which began after Hamas killed some 1,200 people and took 250 hostage in an Oct. 7 attack. 

Since fighting between the two groups started, Israel’s military has killed over 34,000 people in Gaza, the majority of whom were women and children, according to officials there. Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid, as well as lack of food and housing, is also likely to take its toll on the local population.