Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has vetoed a resolution the City Council passed Thursday urging the University of Minnesota to rescind any discipline and asking prosecutors not to charge people in connection with an Oct. 21 protest at the university opposing the Israel-Hamas war.

Council members voted 7-6 to urge authorities to back off discipline and charges against the protesters, and expressed solidarity with "nonviolent campus activism opposing war and supporting Palestinian human rights." Nine votes would be needed to override Frey's veto.

The university disputes that the protest at Morrill Hall was nonviolent, saying protesters spray-painted security cameras, broke interior windows and barricaded exits, trapping staffers for "an extended period of time." University police and Hennepin County sheriff's deputies arrested 11 protesters.

Council Member Robin Wonsley and U students said last week the U evicted protesters from student housing, suspended them for up to 2½ years, ordered community service and threatened fines of up to $5,000 in one case. They said some were told to write a five- to 10-page essay on the difference between protest and vandalism.

In his veto letter, Frey wrote that nonviolent protest is a fundamental right but the protest was "neither peaceful nor protected speech."

"There is no First Amendment right to damage property, break windows, barricade doors, and endanger people's safety," he wrote. "It appears that the council has taken a position simply because it aligns with a cause they support, rather than the basic principles of law."

The university said the protesters caused over $67,000 in damage to doorways, walls and flooring; violated multiple university polices; and caused emotional harm to employees as they piled up furniture and copy machines to prevent workers from leaving.

"Some employees initially hid under desks or in bathrooms, while many unsuccessfully looked for alternative exit routes, because most exits were blocked," U President Rebecca Cunningham wrote in a letter to Frey. "Several were afraid to leave their locked spaces for an extended period of time."

Members of Students for a Democratic Society told the Minnesota Star Tribune last week that the university inflated their damage estimates.

A spokesman for the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said one person has been charged by the county in connection with the protest: a fourth-degree assault charge for spitting at a police officer.

The council will vote on whether to override Frey's veto at an upcoming meeting.