About a year ago there were anti-Israel protests on the campus of the University of Michigan similar to the ones taking place at other schools. Some of those protests resulted in arrests but in a pattern familiar to anyone who follows left-wing activists, charges against those involved were either never filed at all or were mostly dropped. We'll come back to that in a moment but first, here's how the University of Michigan described the incidents they were dealing with last May.

• The protesters established their encampment on the Diag on April 22, following months of escalating disruptions to university operations – including the disruption of honors convocation and repeated disruptions of classes in academic buildings and study in university libraries. 
• In late April and early May, individuals in the encampment replaced Diag bricks with concrete and painted over the Block M on the center of Diag. Spray paint graffiti was found on walkways, on the Michigan Union sign and on the fountain outside the League. These actions were not free speech; they were destruction of property.
• A protest outside the University of Michigan Museum of Art descended into violence on May 3. Participants in the encampment helped organize the protest and issued calls on social media for others to join them. Late in the evening, the crowd became unruly and converged in what can only be described as an assault on law enforcement officers. One person, who is not affiliated with the university, was arrested, and multiple police officers sustained minor injuries. 
• While they did not occur on campus, the demonstrations that took place during the early morning hours of May 15 at the homes of several members of the U-M Board of Regents went well beyond the lawful exercise of free speech. Marching and chanting in the middle of the night outside private homes, posting demands on private property, and placing a burnt cradle and fake bloody body bags on the lawn of one regent amounted to vandalism and trespass, not protected expression. While the demonstrators wore masks to hide their identities, they made clear on social media that they were the leaders of the Diag encampment.

In short, it was the usual leftist circus but local prosecutors repeatedly declined to bring cases against the perpetrators.

Washtenaw county’s office only charged 10% of arrests, while the Wayne county prosecutor Kym Worthy dropped all five Gaza protest cases forwarded to her office by Wayne State University police in Detroit, data provided by protesters’ attorneys and prosecutors shows...

The Washtenaw county prosecutor Eli Savit, a progressive prosecutor who is also Jewish, announced in May that his office would dismiss 36 cases and recommend four for diversion programs where they faced a light punishment.

According to a report from the Guardian, University of Michigan regents were frustrated by the outcomes of those cases and asked the state's Attorney General Dana Nessel to bring charges instead of the local prosecutors.

Frustrated by local prosecutors’ unwillingness to crack down on most of the students arrested at the height of the pro-Palestinian encampments last spring, the regents executed a highly unusual move in recruiting the Michigan attorney general, Dana Nessel, because she was more likely to file charges, three people with direct knowledge of the decision tell the Guardian.

Last September, AG Nessel did file charges against 11 individuals, including 7 who were facing felonies.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed criminal charges against 11 pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan, alleging that several of them used "physical force to counter" police officers clearing a tent encampment in Ann Arbor. One of the protesters was charged with ethnic intimidation after he allegedly attacked a pro-Israel rally...

Out of the 11 people charged, nine stemmed from protests on May 21, when police cleared a tent encampment at the Diag at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Protesters had set up tents calling upon the university to divest from Israel. Two of the nine were charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor with a maximum 30-day sentence, for "failing to vacate the encampment" despite being given "ample time following clear lawful orders to do so," Nessel's Office said in a news release Thursday announcing the charges.

In addition, seven of the pro-Palestinian protesters on May 21 were charged with trespassing and an additional count of resisting or obstructing a police officer, a felony with a maximum two-year sentence. The seven demonstrators "attempted to halt or push back the police by making direct contact with the officers’ bodies or physically obstruct an arrest," Nessel's office alleged.

The AG's decision to bring the charges resulted in pushback from Rep. Rashida Tlaib who had previously visited the encampment on the University of Michigan's campus. Rep. Tlaib accused AG Nessel of bias and acting like a Republican.

“This is a move that’s going to set a precedent, and it’s unfortunate that a Democrat made that move,” Tlaib said in an exclusive interview with Metro Times on Friday. “You would expect that from a Republican, but not a Democrat, and it’s really unfortunate.”

“We’ve had the right to dissent, the right to protest,” Tlaib says. “We’ve done it for climate, the immigrant rights movement, for Black lives, and even around issues of injustice among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.”...

“I think people at the University of Michigan put pressure on her to do this, and she fell for it,” Tlaib says. “I think President Ono and Board of Regent members were very much heavy-handed in this. It had to come from somewhere.”

And from that point it seems the case stalled. There were calls for Nessel to recuse herself on the grounds of bias but it appeared she had no intention of doing so.

On Monday of this week when AG Nessel suddenly announced she was dropping all charges against the 7 activists who had been facing felonies. Even their attorneys were stunned by the sudden reversal.

Inside the courthouse, the decision to drop the charges stunned defense lawyers, who were prepared to offer closing arguments in a preliminary exam that began in February...

The courtroom was packed with spectators, many of them wearing keffiyehs. They burst into applause at the decision and began chants of "Free Palestine."...

After the hearing, the group moved outside where a small celebration started. Spectators enjoyed coffee and bagels while the defendants and their lawyers addressed the group.

Samantha Lewis, one of the activists whose charges were dropped, called AG Nessel the "top pig" and said she was a coward.

"I think that the possibility of recusal was going to be so embarrassing for Nessel that she just couldn't bear it," Lewis said. "And so while all of us, and that includes all of you, refused to cower, she did. And that just goes to show that the bullies and badges and the top pig are just cowards."

Here's AG Nessel's statement explaining her decision:

When my office made the decision to issue charges of Trespassing and Resisting and Obstructing a Police Officer in this matter, we did so based on the evidence and facts of the case. I stand by those charges and that determination.

Despite months and months of court hearings, the Court has yet to make a determination on whether probable cause was demonstrated that the defendants committed these crimes, and if so, to bind the case over to circuit court for trial, which is the primary obligation of the district court for any felony offense. During this time, the case has become a lightning rod of contention.

Baseless and absurd allegations of bias have only furthered this divide. The motion for recusal has been a diversionary tactic which has only served to further delay the proceedings. And now, we have learned that a public statement in support of my office from a local non-profit has been directly communicated to the Court. The impropriety of this action has led us to the difficult decision to drop these charges.

These distractions and ongoing delays have created a circus-like atmosphere to these proceedings. While I stand by my charging decisions, and believe, based on the evidence, a reasonable jury would find the defendants guilty of the crimes alleged, I no longer believe these cases to be a prudent use of my department’s resources, and, as such, I have decided to dismiss the cases.

I have to say this doesn't make much sense to me. If she was right to bring the charges and she believes they would have held up in court, why drop them at this late date. It really does seem like she was worried about a negative outcome. Rep. Tlaib was or course happy to see the charges dropped.

Good news for our university student communities!

Our First Amendment rights should never be criminalized. Speaking up against genocide should be lifted up, not slammed with felony charges. Palestinians deserve safety + dignity. https://t.co/kOdkSZQj0s

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) May 5, 2025

Needless to say, this is not good news for the University of Michigan. This outcome once again affirms that students can violate the rules repeatedly and never face any consequences. That said, instead of relying on the police to solve this problem, why doesn't the school simply make its own decision and expel these students for their behavior. They are the real cowards in this situation.