More than 70 units responded to the 2500 block of North Harwood Street, where Boston Consulting Group’s office is located.
By Chase Rogers, Bianca Rodriguez-Mora and Alex Nguyen
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
Dallas police said they arrested 12 people after pro-Palestinian protesters entered an office building in Uptown to stage a sit-in Friday afternoon.
More than 70 units responded to the 2500 block of North Harwood Street, according to an online list of the department’s active calls. A crowd had begun to gather after officers moved to detain those who entered the building, Officer Luis Mata, the police spokesperson, said in a statement.
Nine people are now facing criminal trespass charges, Mata told The Dallas Morning News. Two others face interference with public duties charges, while one additional person faces a charge of interference, resisting and assault on a public servant.
One of the arrested people was also transported to a local hospital. Mata said this was for “precautionary reasons” after they bumped their head with another person during their arrest.
Police have yet to identify the 12 people who were arrested.
The protest, called “Stop Starving Gaza Now,” was scheduled to take place from 3:30 to 5 p.m. The Palestinian Youth Movement organized the demonstration. Mata said demonstrators entered the building at about 4:45 p.m. and police requested additional officers to respond as the crowd continued to grow.
The demonstration was the latest in a wave of protests across U.S. cities and college campuses since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, with activists calling attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and demanding an end to American support for Israel’s military campaign. Supporters of Israel have defended the offensive as a necessary response to Hamas attacks.
The Palestinian Youth Movement, according to a media advisory, chose to protest outside the Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm. The firm has an office in Dallas located on North Harwood Street.
Last month, Boston Consulting Group announced it had let go of two of the firm’s partners over what it said was their unauthorized work for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The foundation consists mainly of American contractors that Israel wants to use to replace humanitarian groups in Gaza that distribute aid in coordination with the United Nations, according to The Associated Press.
The firm’s statement at the time, which did not identify the partners, said it would investigate. “We deeply regret that in this situation we did not live up to our standards,” the statement read, in part.
The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The News about the Dallas protest.
Noor Saleh, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement’s Dallas chapter, said in an interview that she and other protesters were banging pots and pans to support others staging a sit-in inside the building housing Boston Consulting Group.
Officers then began escorting and handcuffing those who were participating in the sit-in and the crowd outside the building followed them, Saleh said.
A sit-in is a form of nonviolent protest in which demonstrators occupy a space — often inside buildings, offices or public areas — and refuse to leave, typically to draw attention to a political or social issue.
By 6:30 p.m., most of the demonstrators had dispersed from North Harwood Street, with some relocating to the jail at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center. At the jail, more than two dozen people gathered in the lobby and outside to support those who had been detained.
By Chase Rogers
Chase Rogers is a breaking news reporter at The Dallas Morning News. He grew up in Granbury and studied journalism at Texas State University in San Marcos. Before joining The News, he reported for the Austin American-Statesman and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. He can be reached at 361-239-6527 and Signal at crogers.95.
Bianca Rodriguez-Mora is a Breaking News Intern at The Dallas Morning News. She previously interned at D Magazine as an Editorial Intern, working on stories focused on the community in Oak Cliff. She recently graduated from The New School with a Bachelor’s in Journalism and Design.
By Alex Nguyen
Alex Nguyen is a breaking news reporter with The Dallas Morning News. Her work has also appeared in The Texas Tribune and Bloomberg News. She speaks Vietnamese and conversational Spanish, and is always on the lookout for delicious street food.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
