Two Tufts students arrested after violent pro-Palestine protest injures police
Two Tufts students were arrested Tuesday night during a pro-Palestine protest in Boston Common that turned violent, injuring four police officers.
The arrests follow Tufts’ extended suspension of its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and an ongoing federal investigation into the university’s handling of anti-Semitic incidents.
Two students from Tufts University were arrested on Oct. 7 at a pro-Palestine protest in Boston Common, coinciding with the second anniversary of Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel.
Senior Roder Atwood faces multiple charges, including assaulting an officer, while junior Benjamin Choucroun was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, according to The Tufts Daily.
The protest, attended by about 200–300 people, ended in clashes with police, leaving four officers injured, according to CBS News.
At about 5:30 p.m., police responded to Boston Common for the start of a pro-Palestine rally, according to the Boston Police Department’s (BPD) statement.
Around an hour later, the crowd had blocked a street, preventing police vehicles from passing. Officers reported that protesters “surrounded police cruisers, kicked vehicle doors, and resisted dispersal efforts,” and that smoke devices and flares were ignited, endangering both officers and bystanders.
“During the disturbance, officers reported equipment being forcibly removed or damaged, including body-worn cameras, radios, bicycles, and other duty gear,” a BPD spokesperson said.
“Despite these challenges, officers made numerous arrests of individuals engaged in unlawful assembly, violent resistance, and the obstruction of emergency response efforts,” the spokesperson added.
“The allegations are serious and concerning,” Tufts spokesperson Patrick Collins told Campus Reform. “We are working with Boston police to obtain more information, and we will hold accountable any student who is found to have broken the law or violated university policy or our code of conduct.”
Last November, Tufts University extended the suspension of its Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter through January 2027, citing repeated policy violations, including advocating that students “Join the Student Intifada” after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.
The SJP group condemned the move as “an attempt to fracture the strength of our movement” and formally disaffiliated from Tufts. Meanwhile, an Anti-Defamation League study from September 2024 linked SJP and similar groups to a 477 percent rise in anti-Israel campus incidents.
Earlier this year, the Department of Education announced it would investigate Tufts University over reported anti-Semitic incidents after a 2024 complaint by Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Zachary Marschall.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights said it would “investigate whether the University failed to respond to alleged harassment of students based on national origin” in a manner “consistent with the requirements of Title VI.”
Campus Reform has also reported about other far-left ideologies on Tufts’ campus.
This summer, for instance, the school announced a “Lavender Retreat” for LGBT-identifying freshmen and sophomores, scheduled for Sept. 26-28.
Organized by the school’s LGBT Center, the retreat would feature discussions on “queer/trans history,” “intersectionality,” and “queer leadership,” encouraging participation from students of color, transgender individuals, and first-generation students.
