House GOP presses D.C. mayor, police chief over MPD's refusal to clear out GWU protesters

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comers and Educational Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx on Tuesday pressed Washington, D.C., Mayor Bowser and Metro Police Department (MPD) Chief Pamela Smith on the MPD's reported refusal to help remove protesters from George Washington University.

Protesters in support of Palestine have occupied parts of the campus and established an encampment in an open area, following a nationwide trend of student protests over the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. Columbia University, for its part, has struggled to remove protesters, some of whom barricaded themselves in a university building on Tuesday.

"We are alarmed by reports that the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD) rejected requests from officials at the George Washington University (GWU) to assist in removing the radical, antisemitic, and unlawful protestors who have encamped on the university’s campus and surrounding District of Columbia public land for several days," they wrote. "It is deeply disturbing that while GWU has attempted to take concrete measures to protect the safety of Jewish student body from persecution and harassment, they are hindered by the MPD’s refusal to provide assistance clearing out the encampment, over fears of public criticism."

The pair then highlighted the official MPD mission statement requiring the department to safeguard residents and visitors, before stating "It is difficult to see how MPD is following its own mission statement when GWU, a respected institution in Washington, D.C., has stated that the recent actions of protestors represent '…an egregious violation of community trust and goes far beyond the boundaries of free expression and the right to protest.'"

They the set a deadline of May 9 for Bower and Smith to explain why the MPD declined to aid GWU in clearing the encampment. They further asked what would motivate such action by the MPD and how they viewed the department's refusal to address the encampment in the context of its mission statement.

As of press time, the GWU encampment remains active and features a large amount of tents on an open section of campus.

Protests at GWU continue, but pretty quiet during the day pic.twitter.com/JdXINbnJs4

— Ben Whedon (@whedonwins) April 30, 2024

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.