THE ANGELSPolice removed barricades Thursday and began dismantling an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA, after hundreds of protesters defied police orders to leave, about 24 hours after that counterprotesters attacked the camp on campus.
The early morning intervention occurred after officers threatened over loudspeakers for hours to make arrests if people did not disperse. Hundreds of people had gathered on campus, both inside and around the entrenched camp in a show of support.
Police helicopters could be heard flying over the area and the explosion of stun grenades, which produce a flash of light and a loud noise to disorient and stun people, while the police advanced and people chanted “where were you last night.”
Police methodically dismantled the barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and trash containers, and made a path toward dozens of protester tents. The police also began removing pergolas and tents.
Protesters held umbrellas as a shield in front of dozens of police officers. Some warned their fellow protesters to have water ready in case police used tear gas or other irritants.
Protest camps demanding universities stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza have spread to campuses across the country, in a student movement not seen this century. The police response has been similar to that of several decades ago against much larger movements protesting the Vietnam War.
In the Middle East, Iranian state television broadcast live images of the police intervention, as did the Qatari pan-Arab network Al Jazeera. Live images from Los Angeles were also broadcast on Israeli television stations.
Right to demonstrate versus antisemitism
University officials are trying to balance free speech rights with complaints that rallies have led to anti-Semitism and hate.
“This is a peaceful protest. There are no counter-protesters tonight, calling the police is despicable. The city should support them,” Jack Bedrosian, a Los Angeles resident who came to the area to express his support for the protesters, told AFP. the students.
The significant police presence around UCLA came after security forces were criticized for intervening late in the violent clashes on Tuesday night, when groups of counterprotesters attacked the pro-Palestinian student camp.
UCLA announced that classes will be remote on Thursday and Friday due to “the emergency on campus” and asked students to avoid the protest area.
Serial protests
The pro-Palestinian demonstrations began two weeks ago at Columbia University, in New York, and have spread to dozens of educational centers in the United States.
Police carried out evictions on Wednesday at the University of Texas, in the south of the country, where they dismantled a protest camp and detained at least 17 people.
The agents also vacated a camp set up inside one of the buildings at Fordham Jesuit University in New York.
On the other side of that city, law enforcement forces were still deployed at Columbia University, after the violent eviction that occurred the night before. About 300 protesters were arrested in Columbia and at City College (CUNY) in New York. The acts of vandalism forced the university authorities to request police presence.
Some students lamented police “brutality and aggressiveness.”
“They attacked us, they brutally detained us. And they held me for up to six hours before releasing me, quite beaten, they trampled on me, they cut me,” a Columbia student, who gave his name as José, told AFP.
Further north, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), protesters barricaded themselves and blocked an avenue near the Cambridge campus during rush hour on Wednesday afternoon.
New York Mayor Eric Adams accused Columbia “agitators outside the University” of the escalation of the conflict, something the students deny.
Columbia Chancellor Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, who has twice turned to the police in less than two weeks to end the protests, said in a statement that she felt “deep sadness.”
President Joe Biden’s administration – whose support for Israel has outraged many protesters – is trying to maintain a balance.
“We believe it is a small number of students who are causing this disruption, and if they are going to protest, Americans have the right to do so peacefully within the law,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean. Pierre.
The unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, which left 1,170 dead – mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures – sparked an Israeli military offensive seeking to eliminate the Hamas terrorist group.
Source: With information from AP/AFP
