(NewsNation) — An Emory University professor was among 28 people arrested during campus protests last Thursday when Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers were called to dismantle a camp on the university’s quadrangle.

Students at universities across the country have been protesting Israeli military action in Gaza, with many recently setting up tent encampments on their campuses and refusing to leave — some have even faced suspension.

A long line of officers surrounded the Emory University encampment of about three dozen tents after 9:30 a.m. Thursday, as protesters chanted slogans supporting Palestinians.

When officers in tactical gear began detaining people, some submitted, but others physically pushed back. Those who were detained were handcuffed with zip ties and loaded into a police transport van.

Noëlle McAfee, Emory University’s Philosophy Department chair, was recording the arrests on campus when she herself was arrested by police.

“I saw the brutality within minutes,” McAfee said Monday on NewsNation’s “CUOMO.”

She explained that she wasn’t part of the movement at the time and went down to where the demonstrations were taking place after hearing the police had been called in.

“I was coming down just in hopes that this wasn’t going to happen,” she said.

But, the police were called and they were arresting people with any means necessary.

McAfee told NewsNation that she would have hoped that the university president would have set up camp with the protesters and spoken with them on a personal level to see where they were coming from.

“The protesters are not there in solidarity with Hamas,” she said. “They’re in solidarity with people, the citizens. And I think the sense that the distinction needs to be made between the public and legitimate concerns about our collective well-being and governments that don’t share that concern.”

She said people need to learn how to talk to each other and not resort to extremism.

While host Chris Cuomo agreed with what McAfee had to say, he said it’s unacceptable that there are students on American campuses who are “saying things that are flattering to and supportive of a terroristic organization known as Hamas.” And while it might be a minority of the protesters chanting antisemitic comments and flashing those signs, Cuomo said it’s not acceptable.

A majority of the protesters, however, just want to stop the violence against Palestinian civilians, McAfee said.

“These students are concerned about pain and suffering,” McAfee said.

Nexstar Media Wire contributed to this report.