Atlanta’s Emory University professors are suing the institution for over-surveillance and harassment following the Israel-Gaza protests two years ago.
- The professors claim they were unjustly detained and prosecuted following the protests.
- The lawsuit alleges that the institution went against its established guidelines on campus expression.
- Students and professors note that the forceful interventions left a trauma on the community.
Protestors cuffed and detained at Emory University protests 2024/ Photograph: Mike Stewart/AP
A legal and social crisis is brewing over at Atlanta’s Emory University as three tenured professors take to the courts for mistreatment at the institution.
The lawsuit details how the institution played a role in the wrongful arrest and prosecution of the three professors when the administration called the Atlanta police during the protests in 2024.
The plaintiffs argue that the school violated its freedom of expression policies and cite new reports of how police and state troopers targeted conservative groups.
Noëlle McAfee is Emory University’s chair of the philosophy department and one of the plaintiffs.
She says that “The trauma of that day, the violence of it, is so massive and so disruptive.”
The plaintiffs want to ensure that the institution never calls police to quell campus protests again.
Emory University faculty and students also want the institution to remove the cameras installed throughout campus.
This comes after protests from Black law school students over racial profiling and discrimination in the months following the demonstrations.
They worry that what has been happening in public universities in the USA is slowly “creeping into private ones” and relate it to a “dark, authoritarian turn happening around the country.”
Just around the time of the protests, Emory expelled a law student after months of his sending racist messages to faculty members. He was described as racist, misogynistic, and intending to cause harm to the targeted groups.
It took the institution months to take action on the racist student situation. But then they swiftly responded to the Israel-Gaza protests by involving the police.
Kylie Doyle is a former president of the Student Bar Association at Emory. She says, “When the university had protests on campus, they were immediately arrested and shot with rubber bullets, but when a student talks about Black people this way, it takes months for the school to respond.”
Flock Safety is the tech company that supplies cameras for Emory University’s on-campus surveillance. Students and professors have collected over 1000 signatures to cancel the company’s contract with the institution.
They worry that some of the tech used on the cameras, including license plate readers, can be used to share data with agencies like ICE.
In a statement about the lawsuit, the institution said that it is without merit and that it (Emory) acts appropriately to keep “our community safe from threats of harm.”
Emory University’s administration insists that the institution has been fair in handling cases of harassment and bullying, and that it is taking action to review how Flock shares data captured by its cameras.
Emil’ Keme is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. He says that the school contradicted its own principles of search for knowledge and dialogue when it clamped down on protests. He says that since then, students have been afraid to speak up on issues, much like “what’s happening nationally.”
