MACON, Ga. — A Mercer University student was arrested on battery charges after clashing with a conservative speaker over the Israel-Hamas war Thursday evening.
According to jail records and an incident report from the university police, Savannah Grace O’Brien was arrested by the Mercer Police Department on simple battery charges while interrupting a speech from Jennifer Grossman, CEO of the conservative group the Atlas Society.
The meeting was held at Mercer University’s Willet Auditorium and was hosted by the university's chapter of Turning Point U.S.A., a conservative advocacy group.
The Atlas Society – which promotes the ideology of Russian-American writer Ayn Rand – posted a video of the dispute on their Facebook page Friday afternoon.
The video does not clearly show the moment that O’Brien is accused of attacking Grossman. All that’s visible is a quick movement of their hand and then a Mercer police officer arresting them.
But it comes after roughly 45 seconds of O’Brien criticizing Grossman’s stance on the Israel-Hamas War and her previous work with fruit and vegetable company Dole.
“University administrators are reviewing an interaction between an individual student and a guest speaker at a campus lecture Thursday night, and appropriate action will be taken as warranted,” Mercer University said in a statement.
Tensions have escalated on college campuses since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants. Protests supporting both Israel and Palestine have contained heated rhetoric and fueled arguments about free speech on U.S. colleges and universities.
In the video, O’Brien comes down from the audience and interrupts the speech. While standing on the stairs to the front of the auditorium, O’Brien confronts Grossman who appears to block them from stepping into the speaker's area.
O’Brien then moves around Grossman and enters the front of the lecture hall. O’Brien starts criticizing Israel’s handling of the war. They yell out statistics about the Palestinian death toll and the number of children killed amid the fighting.
The person behind the camera then tells O’Brien to leave. They add: “We’re going to have to get the police involved” and say O’Brien had “made their point.”
O’Brien then criticized Grossman’s involvement with Dole, where Grossman previously served as a senior vice president.
According to Reuters, the company has been accused of giving payoffs to paramilitary leaders in Colombia and using those militias to fuel violence in Latin America and further their business objectives.
It is during the argument over Dole’s labor and business practices in Latin America that O’Brien and Grossman begin arguing at each other. There appeared to be only a foot or two between them.
That’s when O’Brien is then accused of putting their hands on Grossman.
While the moment that the alleged battery happened was not captured on video, the motion of O’Brien’s hand does not appear very strong or violent.
However, simple battery is the lowest level of battery or assault. The statute only requires someone to “intentionally makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature” or intentionally cause physical harm to someone else.
In the video, a Mercer University police officer escorts O’Brien from the room. The actual arrest is not shown on camera.
The Atlas Society posted the video on its page and said “America used to be better than this.”
While the speech was held on Thursday, the Bibb County jail website shows O’Brien was booked on Friday and was released shortly after on a $650 bond.
The Atlas Society claims two people were arrested during the meeting but, according to university administrators, they are only aware of the one case.
At the end of their statement, the university said it hopes the student learns from what happened.
“Disrupting and invading the personal space of a speaker is not acceptable,” the university said in its statement. “It is our hope this will ultimately prove to be a positive learning experience for the student.”