What we know about the Emerson arrests and ongoing protests on other campuses

Here’s what we know about the demonstrations as of Thursday afternoon.

Three days after Emerson students set up camp in Boylston Place alley, a small walkway next to the downtown college that leads to the Massachusetts Transportation Building, police moved in and began clearing tents while taking dozens of demonstrators into custody in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Boston police made 108 arrests, according to Sergeant Detective John Boyle, the department’s chief spokesman.

Numerous videos posted on social media Thursday morning showed a chaotic scene as officers, some dressed in riot gear, clashed with demonstrators, who appeared to form a wall by linking arms in the narrow walkway.

The Berkeley Beacon, the student newspaper at Emerson College, reported that at 1:43 a.m. Thursday, seven police vans arrived in front of the alley at the Boylston Street side of the encampment, and officers began making arrests soon after.

“Reporters on the scene describe several arrested students seated in the Massachusetts Transportation Building with their hands behind their backs,” the Beacon reported.

Boyle said three police officers came away with minor injuries, while a fourth officer suffered “more serious” injuries. He said no protesters who were in custody were injured. Boston Emergency Medical Services said four demonstrators were taken to area hospitals. The extent of their injuries was not immediately available.

Emerson College canceled classes Thursday.

“Emerson College recognizes and respects the civic activism and passion that sparked the protest in Boylston Place Alley in support of Palestine while also holding and communicating concerns related to the numerous ordinance violations caused by their encampment,” Emerson President Jay Bernhardt said. “We also understand that clearing the encampment has significantly and adversely impacted our community.”

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu told reporters Thursday morning that officials were reviewing police body camera footage from the scene at Emerson. She said footage she has seen shows police “really trying to work with the organizers and work with those to . . . help protect their right to peacefully protest” while ensuring the public walkway could still be accessed.

She said the tents presented a potential fire hazard.

“There’s still a lot more to review here, and I know that world events, global events, are incredibly painful and emotional for our community,” she said. “We cannot let that destabilize the safety and well-being of our residents here in Boston.”

Wu said police gave multiple warnings to the protesters before officers moved in, and she referenced a city ordinance that went on the books last fall that gives police the ability to clear tent encampments from city streets and sidewalks. The City Council approved the ordinance in October as part of an effort to address a homeless tent encampment near the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard.

In a statement issued early Thursday afternoon, City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune said the right to protest “is sacred” and that universities have “historically served as catalysts for transformative social movements, underscoring the importance of student-led protests on matters of human and civil rights.”

“I caution against heavy-handed responses to protest,” Louijeune said in the statement. “While there are legitimate public safety concerns, the presence of tents alone does not transform a peaceful protest into an unpeaceful one.”

Meanwhile, City Councilor Ed Flynn said that Emerson official showed “great restraint” and Boston police conducted the arrests “in a professional manner.”

“We support freedom of speech,” Flynn said in a post on social media. “But it’s not ok to violate city ordinances; blocking public access, doors, fire hydrants, & tents on public rights of way.”

Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office declined to comment Thursday morning on how it’s going to handle any prosecution of people arrested at the Emerson encampment.

After they were booked at police stations across the city Thursday morning, some of the Emerson protesters gathered at Boston Municipal Court awaiting a court appearance. They were called in small groups to confer with Antonio Massa Viana, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild. Viana said each person was given a date to return to court for arraignment.

Viana said he didn’t know what charges the demonstrators faced but that some will likely be charged with disturbing the peace and others with trespassing.

Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said the police response at Emerson “risked the safety and well-being of all in the area” and “such forceful clampdowns on protest have serious implications for free speech rights on every issue.”

The demonstrations seen at Emerson and numerous other universities came after a tent encampment went up at Columbia University last week. Police in New York attempted to clear the encampment on April 18 and arrested more than 100 people, an event that inspired other students across the country to establish their own encampments in solidarity with the Columbia protesters, who quickly regrouped and continue to camp out at the Ivy League campus.

In addition to the Boston-area schools and Columbia, demonstrations and encampments have also gone up at Yale University, New York University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Southern California, California State Polytechnic University Humboldt, the University of California Berkeley, the Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Minnesota. The Washington Post on Thursday reported that demonstrations were also taking place at Princeton, George Washington University, and Emory University in Atlanta.

On Thursday morning, protesters began setting up on Centennial Common at Northeastern University.

The student group Huskies for a Free Palestine posted videos on Instagram showing a growing crowd on the common, which sits right next to the Ruggles MBTA station. One video showed students standing with their arms interlocked in a circle surrounding at least two tents as Northeastern police officers stood nearby, while another video showed the demonstrators chanting “cops go home,” “you’re not needed,” and “we’re here to stay.”

In a statement, Northeastern spokesperson Renata Nyul said the quads on Boston campus are reserved for university events and the student demonstrators were “in violation of the Code of Student Conduct.”

“Those who are not affiliated with Northeastern are trespassing. The university will take action accordingly,” Nyul said in an email.

The student group said in a later on Instagram that at least one demonstrator had been arrested by Northeastern Police. When asked about the reported arrest, Nyul said “one person, unaffiliated and with an active trespass, was spotted in a university building and was apprehended.” The person wasn’t named.

Earlier this week, Harvard officials attempted to head-off demonstrations at the Cambridge campus by closing its gates to the public and have required people to show a university ID to pass through. That did not deter demonstrators, however, as more than a dozen tents went up in Harvard Yard on Wednesday and protesters draped a keffiyeh over the statue of John Harvard. Organizers are calling the Harvard encampment a “liberated zone.”

Students protesting at Tufts declined to be interviewed earlier this week, but a sign hanging from one of their tents outlined demands that the university disclose investments and “end all ties to Israeli institutions,” and that President Sunil Kumar release a “statement condemning the genocide in Palestine.” Ten tents were in place at the encampment as of Thursday, a university spokesperson said.

At an encampment at Brown University on Wednesday, students with the Brown Divest Coalition said they plan to stay put until the university meets certain demands: dropping charges against 41 students arrested during a sit-in at University Hall last December and divesting the university’s endowment from “companies enabling and profiting from Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territory.”

Material from the Associated Press and Globe coverage was used in this report.

Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.