{
  "id": "2024-04-25-emory-university-civil-unrest",
  "slug": "emory-university-civil-unrest-2024-04-25",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Emory University",
    "shortName": "Emory",
    "state": "GA",
    "type": "private-r1",
    "alertSystemName": "RAVE Emergency Alert (Emory CEPAR)",
    "enrollment": 16000
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2024-04-25",
    "type": "civil-unrest",
    "cleryCategory": "advisory",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat",
    "headline": "Police cleared a protest encampment from the Quad; 28 arrested, including faculty",
    "headlinePublic": "Police cleared a protest encampment from the Quad; 28 arrested, including faculty",
    "summary": "On April 25, 2024, [Emory University police](https://president.emory.edu/communications/2024/04/april-25-this-mornings-events.html), Atlanta Police, and Georgia State Patrol cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment from the university Quad, arresting 28 people including faculty members. The Emory Emergency Notification System issued an alert at approximately 9:23 AM EDT advising the community to [avoid the Quad area](https://www.emorywheel.com/article/2024/09/kuq1e1n6vpja). [Georgia State Patrol acknowledged deploying pepper balls and a Taser](https://dps.georgia.gov/press-releases/2024-04-25/dps-responds-emory-university), although witnesses and protesters described the chemical irritants as tear gas; DPS publicly denied using tear gas.",
    "outcome": "28 individuals were arrested, including 20 Emory community members and several faculty. Economics professor Caroline Fohlin was pushed to the ground and restrained by officers in a widely circulated video. Charges were filed but many were later reduced or dropped."
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestamp": "2024-04-25T09:23:00-04:00",
      "channel": "push-notification",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Emory Wheel and EPD case reports",
      "annotations": []
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "follow-up",
      "timestampApprox": "April 29, 2024 — President Fenves apology letter four days after the encampment clearance",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "It is clear to us now that this information was not fully accurate, and I apologize for that mischaracterization. I am devastated that members of our community were caught up in law enforcement activity enforcing the removal of the encampment. The videos of these interactions are deeply distressing. I take Thursday's events very seriously and we are launching a thorough review of them so that we can develop recommendations to improve how we keep our community safe.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://decaturish.com/2024/04/emory-president-says-initial-statement-about-protest-contained-not-fully-accurate-information/",
      "sourceDescription": "President Gregory L. Fenves's April 29, 2024 apology letter to the Emory community, as reproduced and reported by Decaturish, AJC, and Fox 5 Atlanta",
      "annotations": [
        "Fenves issued this letter on April 29, 2024 (four days after the April 25 Quad clearance) explicitly retracting the 'largely not affiliated with Emory' framing used in the original Elliott statement",
        "By the time Fenves wrote this, Emory had publicly confirmed that 20 of the 28 arrested were members of the Emory community (faculty, students, and staff)",
        "This apology became one of very few first-person presidential reversals issued by a university leader during the spring 2024 encampment wave"
      ],
      "characterCount": 469
    }
  ],
  "context": "In the early morning hours of April 25, 2024, several dozen protesters set up an encampment on [Emory University's Quad](https://www.emorywheel.com/article/2024/09/kuq1e1n6vpja) in solidarity with Palestinians and in opposition to the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. A groundskeeper called Emory Police at approximately 7:42 AM EDT after observing masked individuals setting up tents and removing barricades. At 9:17 AM EDT, the Deputy Chief gave verbal commands for the group to disperse within 10 minutes. The [Emory Emergency Notification System](https://president.emory.edu/communications/2024/04/april-25-this-mornings-events.html) issued an alert at 9:23 AM EDT advising the community to avoid the Quad. What followed was a forceful police response involving Emory PD, [Atlanta Police](https://www.atlantapd.org/Home/Components/News/News/5563/17), and [Georgia State Patrol](https://dps.georgia.gov/press-releases/2024-04-25/dps-responds-emory-university). [Georgia DPS acknowledged deploying pepper balls and at least one Taser](https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/college-protests-palestinian-israel-gaza/dps-says-they-used-a-tasers-pepper-balls-at-emory-but-not-tear-gas-109655082) but publicly denied using tear gas; witnesses and protesters disputed that account, describing the chemical irritant clouds as tear gas. Twenty-eight people were arrested, including economics professor Caroline Fohlin, whose forceful arrest was captured on video and [widely covered by national media](https://www.commondreams.org/news/emory-protests-arrests). The incident became one of the most prominent examples of police force used against campus Gaza solidarity protests in spring 2024.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "The emergency alert was issued at 9:23 AM EDT on April 25, 2024, approximately six minutes after the verbal dispersal order, giving little transition time",
    "28 people were arrested including faculty members, making it one of the more forceful campus protest clearances of spring 2024",
    "Georgia State Patrol officially acknowledged deploying pepper balls and a Taser but publicly denied using tear gas; witnesses and protesters disputed that account, and the dispute over what was deployed drew significant national media attention"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Reports detail police narrative from April 25 protests (Emory Wheel)",
      "url": "https://www.emorywheel.com/article/2024/09/kuq1e1n6vpja",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "This Morning's Events (Emory Office of the President)",
      "url": "https://president.emory.edu/communications/2024/04/april-25-this-mornings-events.html",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "DPS Responds to Emory University (Georgia Department of Public Safety)",
      "url": "https://dps.georgia.gov/press-releases/2024-04-25/dps-responds-emory-university",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "Pro-Palestine protesters forcibly removed from Emory campus (Fox 5 Atlanta)",
      "url": "https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/protest-underway-at-emory-university-in-support-of-palestine-stop-cop-city",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Violent Arrest of Emory Professor Spotlights Brutality (Common Dreams)",
      "url": "https://www.commondreams.org/news/emory-protests-arrests",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "DPS says they used a Taser, pepper balls at Emory, but not tear gas (ABC News)",
      "url": "https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/college-protests-palestinian-israel-gaza/dps-says-they-used-a-tasers-pepper-balls-at-emory-but-not-tear-gas-109655082",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "President Gregory L. Fenves's April 29, 2024 apology letter to the Emory community, as reproduced and reported by Decatu",
      "url": "https://decaturish.com/2024/04/emory-president-says-initial-statement-about-protest-contained-not-fully-accurate-information/",
      "type": "other"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "medium",
  "tags": [
    "civil-unrest",
    "protest",
    "tear-gas",
    "arrests",
    "faculty-arrested",
    "georgia",
    "pro-palestinian",
    "encampment",
    "police-response"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-04-04",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-16",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}