At the University of Pennsylvania last fall, someone pushed the red color into a statue honoring Benjamin Franklin, the founder of the school.
Within a few hours, campus workers were washed. But the university was willing to find the culprit.
A super-Palestinian team had taken responsibility in the social media. The university examined the shots and identified a student’s mobile phone number using data from campus Wi-Fi near the statue while vandalized. Campus police received an investigation order for T-Mobile’s call files for the phone and later a warrant for the seizure of the phone itself.
On October 18 at 6am, the armed campus and city police appeared at home outside the campus of a student believed to be the owner of the phone. A neighbor said they were shining lights in the window of her bedroom, holding weapons. They then entered the student’s apartment and occupied his phone, according to a police report.
Months later, the student has not been accused of any crime.
Penn’s research, which remains open, is one of the many across the country in which universities have turned into more sophisticated technology and shows a police force to investigate student vandalism and other pre-portal-related ownership crimes. (The student who had been seized his phone did not respond to an interview request.)
The warrants were first reported by Daily Pennsylvanian, the independent student newspaper of Penn, who filed a lawsuit after police did not initially file the warrants with a local court.
Many of them happened even before President Trump returned to the office. Since then, he has made it clear that he will use his power to force universities to receive a hard line for protests. His administration warned 60 universities that they could face sanctions on anti -Semitism and also began to seek to expel the protesters. At least nine current or former students and a professor who was legally in the United States with visas or green cards have already been targeted, with at least one student being held on the road by officials in Plainclothes.
And he pulled $ 400 million in funding from the University of Columbia, telling school that he would not discuss the rehabilitation of money unless, among other things, campus security agents received a “full law enforcement principle” to arrest the students. In response, the university said it had hired 36 “special officers” with this principle.
Civil rights lawyers and legal experts said that movements were a fundamental shift to the way universities respond to students’ disciplinary affairs. While arrests and searches are already often in the power of many campus police organizations, recent tactics go beyond campus security officers, said Farhang Heydari, Assistant Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University.
Historically, Mr. Heydari said that the Campus Police tend to operate with discretion in issues that could affect students’ future, in some cases not strictly imposing the law. Campus officers could look at the other way on issues such as minor consumption, for example.
If they strictly impose any law, “everyone will be expelled, no one would be accepted at the bar or anything else,” he said, adding, “this would be horrible for university.”
A ‘fundamental shift’
The widespread protests and scene camps of 2024 have receded, but pre-Palestinian demonstrations have continued, often peaceful, but sometimes include acts of vandalism. Under pressure from federal officials and community members, many universities have moved to embrace tougher and more sophisticated security tactics to eliminate protest activity.
Some experts are concerned that tactics could endanger freedom of speech and political freedoms, especially in cases where students have been seized, although they have not been linked or accused of crimes.
“It really seems to be an extension of law enforcement that may not exist 20, 25 years ago,” said Saira Hussain, a senior personnel lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non -profit organization that supports the protection of liberties online.
Universities have defended their tactics, saying that they are essential to protect students’ safety and fight discrimination. In Penn, the university said that the search for apartments was essential for maintaining order and security.
“Unfortunately, a small group of people, some of whom may be students, continue to take annoying and sometimes illegal actions against the academic community,” the school said in a statement.
“They continue to violate the policies and laws that do not believe that they apply to them and then blame their own institution when they face consequences,” the university added. “Laws must be imposed evenly and fairly and are not designed to give up when they do not fit into a specific view.”
The New York Times examined the documents in seven cases of vandalism that included research orders to investigate students’ protesters. Someone has led to criminal charges.
In an episode involving the graffiti campus in November, a dozen law enforcement officers searched for two students at George Mason University who are sisters.
Authorities said they found the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah and other materials that have anti-American rhetoric and an expression showing “death in America”, as well as four weapons and ammunition. However, authorities reported that materials and weapons belonged to other members of the family who lived at home, according to court deposits.
The two women were banned by the campus, but no charges have been filed.
In an open letter to the authorities of George Mason, 100 teachers, students, political and political groups complained about the decision to prevent students.
The university president, Dr. Gregory Washington, said the findings of the search suggested that “something potentially more malicious” was happening, according to an email he wrote in the school received by Times through a public file. He also said that the university was actively working with “several three -letter organizations aimed at maintaining our campus and sincerely secure our country”.
Dr. Washington also published a public letter and the university said it would have no extra comments on the case.
In a statement, he said, “in general,” when it is necessary for the university to prevent a student from entering the campus or impose temporary suspension on a student organization, these actions are taken carefully, with cause and as precautions for the maintenance of the environment. “
Concerns about privacy
In Penn, after a public outcry for the search, a review of the committee found that the police had behaved professionally. But the review has asked questions about how such a quest can cause “discomfort and even fear”.
University police have sometimes reported social media positions to justify the demands of their commands. However, the positions are constitutionally protected speech, said Zach Greenberg, a first amendment lawyer at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a group of freedom of speech. He said that tactics could cool the free expression.
Most students who participated in surveillance cases were reluctant to talk about their experiences. Many students who participated in protests had their identity exposed or encountered.
“I have done legal work related to the right to protest for over 35 years and I have not seen such things in campus cities,” said Rachel Lederman, a senior adviser to the Center for Protest and Court.
Ms Lederman represents Laalaa Irshad, a third undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was seized by campus police. Mrs Irshad is asking a court to reject a warrant that led to the seizure. Nearly six months after taking it, it has not been returned and has not been accused of crime.
In an email, Ms Irshad said she felt “incredibly exposed” to the thought that the police could review all the data on the phone, dating back to the fifth grade.
“Everything is open to them from my random messages with friends in my Google searches on health issues in my political minds in my super familiar messages with the family,” he wrote.
A university spokesman said the warrant is related to an ongoing research of vandalism, but would not describe vandalism itself.
At least one warrant has led to a criminal case. At the University of Indiana Bloomington, a life sculpture of a former president of the University of Vandali was red to anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel.
After reviewing the security materials, university police received warrants to search for a student’s car and mobile phone. The researcher found photos of the statue covered by the color and the student was charged with two charges of criminal abuse.
Justifies but without charges
In many cases, students have not been accused of offense as a result of warrants.
In September, three North Carolina officers, Chapel Hill, arrived in the Dorm room of Laura Saavedra Forero, a senior who had regularly participated in protests. Mrs Saavedra Foreroo, her lawyer Jaelyn Miller, said she believed that police were targeting her client because she is using a wheelchair that made her easier to identify from other students.
They received an investigation order for her cellphone and everything in it, claiming that she probably contained elements of vandalism associated with a protest. The university said the warrant is related to vandalism of 10 campus buildings on September 19, but refused to answer additional questions
“It is very strange for a low -level criminal offense, such as the vandalism of graffiti,” Ms Miller said, “to seek an investigation warrant against his student, not because the student committed a crime, but only because the student was protesting.”
Crown They contributed reports.
