WASHINGTON (TND) — The president of George Washington University said late Sunday night her school needs the help of local police to restore law and order as anti-Israel encampment activities continue.

GW President Ellen Granberg’s released a statement Sunday denouncing the encampment degeneration over the weekend. Granberg also said the school cannot restore order without the help of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

“The demonstration, like many around the country, has grown into what can only be classified as an illegal and potentially dangerous occupation of GW property,” Gransberg said. “It is also essential to highlight that at no point was this encampment lawful.”

As a university, we are not equipped to single-handedly manage an unprecedented situation such as this,” Gransberg added.

Gransberg’s campus notice marks the first time GW has publicly sought MPD’s assistance with the encampment.

While acknowledging MPD is providing an increased security presence on and around the occupied portions of the encampment, Gransberg said GW cannot regain campus control on its own.

When unlawful activities go beyond these limits, we must rely on the support and experience of the DC Metropolitan Police Department,” Gransberg said.

Social media video surfaced over the weekend of an encampment activity called “People’s Tribunal” where GW protesters acted out sentencing senior university officials to death.

The first official the protesters pretended to sentence was Christopher Alan Bracey, GW’s African American provost.

“Bracey, Bracey we see you,” protesters chanted. “You assault students too.”

As a proxy for Bracey sat in a chair before protesters, an encampment leader rendered the fake verdict.

Off to the motherf****** gallows with you too,” the encampment leader said.

This mock court was held for GWU’s board of trustees and for the school’s president, shouting for these individuals to be beheaded.

“To the guillotine,” protesters said.

The outside influence factor

In Sunday evening’s notice to GW’s community, Gransberg said her campus is being infiltrated by individuals that are not students.

[I]t is clear that this is no longer a GW student demonstration,” Gransberg said. “It has been co-opted by individuals who are largely unaffiliated with our community and do not have our community’s best interest in mind.”

The National Desk (TND) saw messaging and material during a GW encampment visit Friday evening unrelated to Israel’s war against Hamas.

Newspapers and propaganda articles from the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) were pinned around the encampment.

“GW revolutionaries support revolutions,” one flier said.

PSL is a national organization that believes capitalism is in a crisis and that socialism is the only form of government that will usher in a fairer society.

The populist left-wing group also calls for the overthrowing of the U.S. government, according to its website.

The idea that capitalists’ grip on society and their increasingly repressive state can be abolished through any means other than a revolutionary overturn is an illusion,” PSL’s website says.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and MPD have largely remained silent as Gransberg intensifies her call for law enforcement intervention.

When pressed Monday about why her office has not ordered law enforcement intervention, a spokesperson forwarded TND a newsletter Bowser's office sent later Friday afternoon.

Bower praised Washington residents for refusing to “escalate the divisive rhetoric” in an email entitled “Our DC Values.”

“[W]e will monitor and ensure access to streets, parks, and safe and sanitary conditions; and we will continue to be supportive of universities or other private entities who need help,” Bower said.

And the Chief and her team at MPD will always have the final say on public safety matters, especially how our resources are deployed,” the email added.

MPD did not immediately respond to comment requests on Monday.

Bowser and MPD Chief Pamela Smith are expected to testify about Washington’s encampment response on Wednesday at 1 p.m. before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

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