U-M college protesters get homes raided in connection to campus vandalism
Police raids of college protesters over campus vandalism conducted
Multiple college student activists were said to be briefly detained then released. Pro Palestine college students say they were targeted, but law enforcement says that wasn't the case.
FOX 2 - Raids took place with local, state and federal agents executing search warrants at homes in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Canton Wednesday.
Multiple college student activists were said to be briefly detained then released. Pro Palestine college students say they were targeted, but law enforcement says that wasn't the case.
The backstory:
"I woke up to a lot of commotion," said Bo French. "Police cars everywhere, FBI everywhere. A big hers of people, a lot of bystanders a lot of yelling. people were upset about what was happening."
What was happening was an early morning raid on Summit Street in Ypsilanti.
"There’s no question it took everybody by surprise, the scale of it took people by surprise," said John Philo, an attorney. "They’ve clearly been following the students for a period of time."
Philo is part of a law firm representing multiple student organizations that have rallied for Palestine.
He says each of the raids conducted targeted the homes of local supporters who had protested at the University of Michigan.
"They seized all their electronics," Philo said. "We expect that there’s a search of that equipment going on now. They seized at one home, the car. They searched bread boxes. Just a wide scope of things that don’t seem to point in any one direction."
The attorney general’s office is the lead on the case — it said the raids had nothing to do with protests at U-M, nor the encampment at the Diag and confirmed ICE and immigration services were not involved.
These search warrants were in regard to vandalism.
"That is breathtaking, shocking and appalling, that acts of vandalism at least on the scale that’s occured at the University of Michigan campus, are no more than misdemeanors, are drawing out federal police, the state attorney general is coordinating with Trump’s administration's FBI, the state troopers are there, for something they’re calling acts of vandalism."
Stay with FOX 2 for more details as they become available.
The Source: Information from a witness and attorney representing several protesters contributed to this report.
