ROCHESTER, N.Y. — News10NBC has video of a clash between University of Rochester public safety officer and a student at a pro-Palestinian meeting.

It happened inside the Wilson Commons campus student center Monday. The issue came up at another campus protest in front of the UR Public Safety Department Tuesday.  The leader of the UR Students for Justice in Palestine group gave permission to share the video.

The video shows a clash between one student and a public safety officer who was asking to see the student’s ID card. The student was arrested. In the video, you can hear the interim chief of the department say she hit one of his officers.

“She just struck a police officer,” Interim Chief Gerald Pickering said to another student. “She just struck a police officer. “

“I saw what I saw,” you could hear a student say on the video.

Thirty seconds later, the interim chief called RPD for back up.

“Start Rochester Police Department to this location,” Chief Pickering said into his radio. “Start Rochester Police Department to this location.”

Monday, the university said Students for Justice in Palestine held an “unauthorized event” and were “advised multiple times” about the consequences of unauthorized events. The university said the student arrested “struck a DPS officer on the side of the head.”

But this is how the student group responded to the incident outside the public safety building Wednesday.

Omar Darweish, UR student: “(The Department of Public Safety) directly physically assaulted our students.”
Crowd: “Shame!”
Darweish: “And for that we do not stand.”

Darswiesh said he believes the university has suppressed and censored pro-Palestinian speech since the Israel-Hamas war started the day after the Hamas terror attack on October 7.

The university changed it’s protest policy in late November to include a three-day notice of a protest. Darwiesh read a list of demands to the university including an apology for what he calls harassment and discrimination against students who speak out.

“There were more officers than students present,” he said. “These events demonstrate an excessive use of force and a narrative that seeks to criminalize and silence students who stand up for Palestine.”

Berkleye asked the university for an update on the arrest. The university confined its response to the protest Wednesday. It said “everything remained peaceful and there were no incidents to report.”