Boise Police Shove Protestors at Capitol
By Jaime Geary // 05/10/24
A group of Boise Police Department (BPD) and Idaho State Police (ISP) shoved two protestors on the Capitol steps Wednesday evening, escalating a 7-day long “People’s University for a Free Palestine” protest criticizing Idaho and Boise State’s potential financial involvement in Israel’s ongoing military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s campaign has resulted in the confirmed deaths of approximately 35,000 Palestinian civilians.
Boise State student protestors held a Commencement ceremony 3 days before the shoving incident on the Capitol steps, and 2 days after Israel denied a ceasefire with Hamas. Israel is currently enacting a military campaign against Hamas in the Palestinian city of Rafah, home to roughly 1.4 million Palestinian civilians at the time of writing.
Footage by a protestor facing the street outside the State Capitol captured an officer directing a protestor to “get out of the street,” then shoving her and several other protestors onto the ground and Capitol steps.
“Two people got assaulted by the Boise Police Department, we have their badges,” said a student protestor from Boise State University, who used the name “N.R.” for their personal safety. “There’s at least 30 witnesses.”
Another Boise State Student using the pseudonym “D” for their safety detailed the scene.
“They were telling us ‘you can’t stand there, you can’t stand there.’ And so that’s when someone got onto the road. And then they told us you can’t be in the road. You have to be on the sidewalk,” D said. “As they were walking to the sidewalk, they proceeded to push them and just briefly, like just softly push them, and then they look back and were like ‘Hey, you can’t push me.’ And then that’s when they used much more force and pushed them to the ground and proceeded to push at least two more people around me.”
“There was a woman here with her baby,” D said. “She was showing them ‘Hey, we have a kid here.’”
The police removed weights from the protestors’ signs and tents. “There was a Hijabi woman who was praying right behind the canopy,” N.R. explained. “So once the weights lifted, the winds toppled it over and almost literally knocked that person in the head.”
“We legally were in our rights and fully within our rights in everything that we’ve done,” N.R. said.
The protestors’ decision to move onto the steps Tuesday night was made because the police blocked off the front lawn of the Ada County Old Courthouse occupied by the protestors for “lawn maintenance.”
“We packed up as much as we could carry so we could relocate to the Capitol,” D said.
The front lawn of the courthouse previously occupied by the “People’s University” protestors is blocked by yellow caution tape. A sign holds up the tape that declares a closure of the entire Old Courthouse lawn for “annual irrigation start-up and repair” from March 28, 2022 to March 30, 2022. Trespassing on the lawn, the sign warns, could result in criminal prosecution for trespassing.
The ISP officers are claiming that every single night, from 7 PM to 7 AM, they need to be able to water the lawn,” said a protestor who asked to be referred to as Birdie. “That’s what they’re claiming beyond mowing, which they did mow this morning.”
The sign blocks the Courthouse lawn from public use under Idaho Code 38.04.06.204, which explains that “any portion of the State Facilities be closed for Public Use upon a finding that the closed portion of the State Facilities has sustained damage or is in imminent danger of sustaining damage.”
The damages, the sign alleges, are to the Courthouse’ irrigation system. The notice also invokes Idaho Code Section 67-5709, which affirms that the closure is to be enforced by “the director of the Idaho state police.”
Birdie explained that the police have restricted the same section of the lawn before during an encampment protest by Boise Mutual Aid, a local collective dedicated to providing financial support for the homeless.
“If you were aware, Boise Mutual Aid held a tent protest in the same area,” Birdie said, citing a demonstration that occurred 2 years ago on the Old Courthouse lawn that was broken up for “grounds maintenance.” “This was the exact same piece of paper that they put up when that protest was happening,” Birdie declared, pointing at the dust-covered sign announcing the closure.
Birdie confirmed that the ISP have tried and failed to arrest protestors multiple times. One arrest attempt was based upon an Idaho noise ordinance, reported by Boise State's The Arbiter as a statute with a partial injunction. In observance of the injunction, the Boise Police Department elected to refrain from making arrests based on the ordinance.
According to Birdie, the Idaho State Police are threatening arrest under the ordinance, but have not carried out any arrests to completion. “ISP came over, detained someone but then undetained them if they promised to stop using the [megaphone],” referencing a protestor who was told they would be arrested if they continued using a megaphone, but ultimately was not arrested.
“We’ve sent letters to every single senator in Idaho. We’ve shown up to their events. We’ve tried to meet with them in person. We’ve sent emails, we’ve called their offices. No one is listening and no one is doing anything,” Birdie said. “Our only demand is that the ISP stop harassing us and let us practice and exercise our First Amendment right.”
Among the protestor’s action items is a request for Boise State University to disclose its investments. “We want our school to disclose where their investments are going to, where the money is going to; we want them to divest from anything that’s aiding in Palestinian genocide or any genocide around the world,” a protestor named S said.
Governor Brad Little released a statement on Thursday about the protests. “My administration is committed to enforcing the law and protecting our Capitol and public from the dangers of illegal encampments. Idaho is not Portland, LA, San Francisco, or Seattle where public officials tolerate unsafe and destructive public camping. Idaho cherishes and protects our First Amendment rights to speech, popular and unpopular alike, but I will not tolerate any group’s efforts to establish encampments that damage state property, create health and safety risks, and interfere with other forms of public access. I am grateful for the prompt and consistent efforts of the Idaho State Police and Department of Administration,” the statement reads.
Birdie is no longer worried about the protestors being arrested. “There’s absolutely nothing they can do about us being here, and they’re very, very upset about that,” Birdie said.
N.R. asserted that the protest is within First Amendment rights. “They’re just looking for reasons to finally arrest us… We’ve been on it for a week. They have been on our tails this entire time.”
“I understand it’s your job as a police officer to keep your community safe. But when it goes to the extremes, it ends up making people unsafe,” N.R. said.
A student broke down in tears on the Capitol steps while the surrounding police disassembled and confiscated tents.
“I saw another student,” D said, “she broke down in tears and she was just crying to all the cops saying, ‘What do you want us to do? We’re in our full legal rights. Where do you want us to go?’ And she just broke down.”
The student protestors expressed agitation at Boise State University’s written response to potential protests on campus. President Marlene Tromp released a statement on Friday, May 3, that expressed zero tolerance for disruptive demonstrations on campus during Saturday’s Commencement ceremonies.
“Those who disrupt campus or commencement—regardless of reason or rationale—will be asked to stop. If they fail to stop, they will be asked to leave. If they fail to leave, they will be removed and may face arrest or campus disciplinary actions,” Tromp’s letter reads.
“I’m just replaying in my mind what this would have looked like if we carried this on campus and just not had to go through what was happening today,” D said. “I feel as if Dr. Tromp let us be on campus, I wouldn’t have been feeling the brutality of police today.”
Over 2400 protestors have been arrested on college campuses since the New York Police Department began arresting students at Columbia University. Roughly 66% of the arrests nationwide were university students, staff, and faculty. Police wearing riot gear have dismantled encampments and fired tear gasinto crowds of protestors on campus grounds.
“Maybe Palestine becoming free will have nothing to do with Idaho,” D said. “But these are people who care and just cannot sit and do nothing.”
Update 08/05/24: published online, minor grammatical corrections.