Dozens of tents remained standing on the grassy Tivoli Quad at the Auraria Higher Education Campus in downtown Denver on Monday as a student-led protest against the war in Gaza entered its fifth day.
The encampment has more than doubled in size since it was set up Thursday, despite police removing tents and arresting 44 people Friday and a mix of rain and show over the weekend.
More than 100 people gathered at the encampment Monday afternoon to hear from protesters arrested by Denver and Auraria campus police Friday.
Demonstrators spoke, played music and read poetry for nearly two hours as organizers passed out water, snacks and sunscreen among the crowd. Some started profane chants against colonialism, Israel and President Joe Biden.
University of Colorado Denver student Harriet Falconetti wore the same red and white polka-dot bucket hat she had on when she was arrested Friday as she addressed the crowd.
Falconetti was not expecting to be arrested on a college campus, she told The Post. She’s a member of Students for a Democratic Society and is protesting because “it’s important to end the genocide of the Palestinian people,” she said.
The group is working alongside the Colorado Palestine Coalition and other community members to demand the University of Colorado system divest from all funding and activities related to Israel.
Through that work, Falconetti met people who lost dozens of family members in Gaza.
“That’s been really transformative for me,” she said. “It’s made this issue really important for me.”
Auraria campus officials on Monday could not confirm if all 44 people arrested Friday have been released, whether the campus police department will send the cases to the Denver District Attorney’s Office for charges to be filed or what the next steps are for enforcing the campus ban on camping.
But in a Saturday Instagram post, Colorado Palestine Coalition organizers confirmed that everyone arrested Friday had been released.
No injuries were reported during the arrests, according to campus officials, though Falconetti and others who were arrested said they had scrapes and bruises from being arrested along with lingering numbness in their hands from being handcuffed with zip ties for several hours.
Falconetti was released from the jail around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, just over 24 hours after she was arrested. She didn’t see any more police presence at the encampment over the weekend or Monday.
“I think the university is learning that cracking down is only going to make the movement bigger,” she said. “This is only going to end one way, and we’re not leaving until they respond to our demands.”
Jonathan Kuhne, 27, was also among the demonstrators arrested.
Kuhne isn’t connected to the campus but said he came to the encampment to support students in standing up and using their voices.
He was arrested for trespassing and failing to obey a lawful order, dragged away from the quad and released from the jail around 1 a.m. Saturday. Kuhne was handcuffed for more than two hours and said his right arm is still numb.
“There were so many cops there, it seemed like a massive waste of money,” he said. “Like, what are we doing? Don’t cops have better things to be doing?”
CU Denver student Khalid Hamu was one of a few student organizers not arrested Friday. The past five days were “extremely infuriating, extremely maddening but also the best five days of my life,” Hamu said.
He’s slept out every night since the encampment began — his first time camping — and he’s seen students join the protest who rarely came to SDS meetings.
Hamu said the encampment echoes student movements to protest South African apartheid and the Vietnam War.
“An opportunity to see change has been thrown in front of us,” Hamu said. “…I think we are going to look back and see this as another high point in the student resistance movement.”
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