More than 200 people were taken by the police at UCLA on Thursday. This makes a total of over 2,000 arrests at many college campuses since the police removed a camp at Columbia University in April. The information is from The Associated Press.
Protests and people getting arrested have happened all over the country. But in the last day, a lot of people were watching what happened at the University of California, Los Angeles. There were chaotic scenes when officers in riot gear pushed against a crowd of demonstrators on Thursday.
The protests at colleges across the country started at Columbia on April 17 to show opposition to Israel’s attack in Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct 7. Terrorists killed 1,200 people, most of them were innocent civilians, and they also took about 250 people as hostages. Israel has promised to eliminate Hamas and has caused the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as reported by the Health Ministry in that area.
Police took pro-Palestinian protesters to jail on college campuses all over the country last night. There was a lot of chaos at the University of California, Los Angeles when police in riot gear pushed against a crowd of protesters.
The police took down barriers and started taking apart the demonstrators’ strong camp at UCLA. This happened after many protesters refused to leave, and some of them linked arms to try to stop the police. The police used loud, bright bangs to scatter the crowds.
Sgt Alejandro Rubio of the California Highway Patrol said that 132 people were arrested at UCLA. Rubio said the people who were arrested are being taken to the county jails complex in downtown Los Angeles for processing. The UCLA police will decide if they need to press charges or not.
On Thursday morning, workers went to the old campsite and started cleaning up a lot. Bulldozers picked up trash bags and took down tents. Some buildings had paint on them that was not nice.
The police arrested people after using loudspeakers to tell them to leave for many hours. More than 1,000 people were on campus, some were inside a tent area that was barricaded. People who were protesting and the police pushed and fought with each other when the officers faced opposition. Video showed police taking off helmets and goggles from protesters as they were arrested.
The police helicopters were flying around and there were loud bangs that make bright lights and loud noises to shock and disorient people. The protesters yelled at the police, asking them where they were the previous night. On Tuesday night, another group attacked the camp, and it took the UCLA administration and campus police a long time to come and help.
Protesters are setting up tents on college campuses to ask universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza. This is a big student movement happening at campuses all over the country. The recent police crackdowns were similar to actions taken years ago against a bigger protest against the Vietnam War.
Protests and people getting arrested have happened all over the country. At least 1,945 people have been taken into custody since the protests started at Columbia University in New York on April 18th.
They included a college teacher from Illinois who said he suffered several broken ribs and a broken hand during a protest supporting Palestine on Saturday at Washington University in St. Louis Louis, Missouri = St Louis, Missouri
A video taken by someone who was nearby shows the police arresting Steve Tamari, a professor who teaches about the past at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He looks like he’s going to record the protesters being taken away by police when several officers force him to the ground.
Tamari said on Thursday that it was “a small price to pay for Israel’s ongoing killing of people in Gaza. ”
Authorities at Stony Brook University in New York on Long Island reported that 29 people were taken into custody early Thursday morning. This included students, faculty, and others who were not part of the university community. Fordham University in New York City also confirmed that 15 people were arrested after causing trouble in the lobby of a building on their campus at Lincoln Center.
The police arrested 15 people for trespassing at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus after a large group forced their way into the Lowenstein building.
Seventeen people got arrested on Wednesday at the University of Texas at Dallas for not obeying orders to move an encampment from the main walkway. They were charged with criminal trespass. A university spokeswoman announced this in a statement on Thursday.
The police at Yale University arrested four people, two of whom were students, on Wednesday night. This happened after about 200 protesters walked to the president’s house and the campus police department, according to school officials. The school said that the protesters did not listen to warnings and were not allowed to be on campus without permission.
The protest group Occupy Yale said that campus police were aggressive during the arrests and did not give any warnings. The team put a video on Instagram that shows police officers holding one person down on the ground and another person against the sidewalk.
Occupy Yale said they are having a peaceful protest. The police took, pushed, and hurt people. Is this how you keep the campus safe.
The police in Oregon started to remove pro-Palestinian rights protesters from the Millar Library at Portland State University, where they have been staying since Monday.
They used spray paint to draw on the walls and moved furniture to block off areas. Portland State University said on social media that the campus will stay closed because of police activity.
Ann Cudd, who is the president of the university, said on Wednesday that around 50 people left the library after they were told they wouldn’t get in trouble if they left quietly. But there are still some people, including those who don’t go to the university, who stayed behind. The police in Portland said on Thursday that 15 of their cars were set on fire during the night. It’s not clear if this was connected to the protest.
The University of Minnesota officials have made a deal with the protesters to stop camping on the Minneapolis campus. Temporary President Jeff Ettinger sent an email to the students on Thursday, saying that the people protesting have agreed not to cause any trouble during the final exams or graduation ceremonies. That happened when Northwestern University in suburban Chicago and Brown University in Rhode Island made similar agreements.
Meanwhile, the head of Florida’s state universities has told the leaders of the campuses to do whatever they can to keep the graduation ceremonies from being disturbed. This includes big schools like the University of Florida and Florida State University.
Protests also started happening outside of colleges. On Thursday in Albuquerque, around twenty-four protesters sat in the middle of a road, stopping people from getting to the main gate at Kirtland Air Force Base. The group showed flags and promised to “close everything” because of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The protests at UCLA seemed to be getting a lot of notice. Iranian TV showed police working and so did Al Jazeera from Qatar. Live pictures of Los Angeles were also shown on Israeli TV.
President Joe Biden said it’s okay for students to protest peacefully, but he doesn’t like the chaos of the past few days.
Israel called the protests against them antisemitic, but people who criticize Israel say they are just using that as a way to stop people from speaking out against them. Some people at the protests said things that are mean to Jewish people or threatened violence, but the organizers say it’s a peaceful movement to support Palestinian rights and oppose the war.
Hundreds of California Highway Patrol officers went to UCLA campus early on Thursday. They wore face shields and protective vests, and held their batons out to keep the demonstrators, who wore helmets and gas masks, away. The demonstrators were chanting: “You want peace. ” We want fairness.
The police carefully took apart the barricade made of wood, pallets, metal fences, and dumpsters at the camp. Then they removed many canopies and tents. The amount of people protesting got smaller in the morning. Some left on their own with their hands up, while others were taken by the police.
Police were there and kept telling people to be careful, but on Tuesday night, people who were against the pro-Palestinian camp started attacking it by throwing things, using pepper spray, and tearing down fences. Violent conflict between the parties involved.