VCU student arrested in gathering echoing 2024 Gaza encampment

Andrew Kerley, Contributing Writer

Sarah Hagen, Contributing Writer

Ethan York, Contributing Writer

Molly Manning, Contributing Writer

Marcus Leary, Contributing Writer

A peaceful gathering to “be together in community” on the anniversary of VCU’s violent April 2024 Gaza solidarity encampment unravelled into disarray after police told roughly 50 students they were trespassing and breaking campus policy, ending in one student’s arrest.

The VCU Students for Justice in Palestine chapter arrived on the James Branch Cabell Library lawn at 2 p.m. and encouraged students to bring snacks, art supplies and games, according to a post on their Instagram.

In a scene that reflected last year — Aaron Hart, vice president of student affairs, and Gabe Willis, associate vice president and dean of student advocacy, delivered leaflets to students at roughly 3:45 p.m. and said the event was unauthorized and violated the Interim Campus Expression and Space Utilization Policy, which was implemented in August 2024 following last year’s encampment.

Hart said he recalled protesting when he was in college, and they just want to have conversations with students about following the rules and protesting the correct way.

VCU Police asked students to relocate 100 yards away to the “designated area for free speech” in Park Plaza Amphitheatre and said students could not hold signs with political messages on them.

Student participants debated with VCU Police and Student Affairs officials over details of the policy, such as whether or not blankets were allowed, or if blankets with writing on them were considered signage.

Rachael Tully, assistant dean of students, told participants they were allowed to have blankets and banners out as long as they sat on them, which caused confusion among the crowd, according to Palestinian student organizer Sereen Haddad.

Students asked how she could guarantee their safety against the police and Tully said she would talk to them. Tully did not return to the lawn after leaving, but more VCU police officers showed up around 15 minutes later, according to Haddad.

VCU Police sergeant Curtis Diesselhorst announced at roughly 6 p.m. that students would be given one more warning to leave or they would be arrested for trespassing.

Students were packing up their blankets and chanting at police when Diesselhorst arrested Oscar Ferguson-Osborne, a fourth-year communication arts student, for trespassing. He was holding a sign that contained an expletive. Ferguson-Osborne was also arrested on the same charge during last year’s encampment.

The student crowd followed police as they walked Ferguson-Osborne to a van on S. Cathedral Place, chanting “let him go” and “RPD, KKK, IOF, they’re all the same” — comparing police to the Ku Klux Klan and the “Israeli Occupation Forces,” an anti-zionist nickname for the Israel  Defense Forces.

Students cleared their blankets and signs off of the lawn by 6:15 p.m. Students, VCU Police and Richmond Police remained on the scene until roughly 8:15 p.m.

VCU Student Affairs, security personnel and police provided multiple warnings to disperse and relocate to the Park Plaza Amphitheater, but many still refused, VCU Police spokesman Jake Burns stated.

Students started chanting at police because they felt threatened, Haddad, the organizer, said. The gathering was purely peaceful; students were just there to talk, do their homework and study for finals.

“This wasn’t a demonstration,” Haddad said. “It was genuinely just coming here to be together in community because of the trauma that we had faced last year from police brutality.”

Last year’s encampment resulted in police arresting 13 people, including six students, and using chemical irritants on protesters such as pepper spray, smoke bombs and CS spray, an ingredient of tear gas. Students reported black eyes, cuts, bruises and sprained wrists and shoulders, according to a previous article by The Commonwealth Times.

Norman Capers, a second-year mathematical sciences student, was present for the protest and last year’s encampment, and said both displays from police were “disrespectful.”

“Rightfully, the students got mad, because it’s a lawn, we’re studying, there should be no reason why the police should come out here,” Capers said.

Miyah Johnson, a second-year health services student, said similar sentiments about police and university actions against students.

“I think VCU is very pick and choose about what they care about,” Johnson said.

Haddad called VCU’s actions “intimidation tactics” in a speech to the crowd, before encouraging students to “spontaneously” return to the lawn again on April 30. Some students regrouped at Richmond City Justice Center, where Ferguson-Osborne was being held.

“What you’re witnessing here is fascism, and fascism doesn’t just start with one group and then end,” Haddad said. “It comes forever.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misspelled Oscar Ferguson-Osborne’s last name.