Clashes in UCLA; 300 held on New York campuses
American universities were on edge Wednesday after police officers from New York to Los Angeles entered campuses where pro-Palestinian demonstrators had erected encampments and seized academic buildings.
Mayor Eric Adams of New York said that about 300 protesters had been arrested Tuesday night at City College of New York and at Columbia University, where police officers in riot gear cleared a building that had been occupied for nearly a day to protest Israel’s war in Gaza.
At the University of California, Los Angeles, police officers intervened before dawn Wednesday to break up violent clashes between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and counter-protesters, hours after administrators declared an encampment on campus illegal.
At Tulane University in New Orleans, 14 people had been arrested, administrators said, as state and local forces helped campus police disperse protesters. At the University of Arizona, campus police sprayed chemicals as they broke up a demonstration. Other protest encampments around the country were still standing. Some demonstrators have said that they will not back down, posing a challenge for university administrators who want to protect free speech rights while minimising campus disruption.
The clashes at UCLA erupted as counter-protesters tried to pull down parade barricades, plywood and wooden pallets protecting a tent encampment built by pro-Palestinian protesters. Video showed fireworks exploding over and in the encampment. People threw chairs and other objects. Some screamed pro-Jewish comments as pro-Palestinian protesters tried to fight them off.
After a couple of hours of scuffles between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators at UCLA, police wearing helmets and face shields slowly separated the groups and quelled the violence. The scene was calm as day broke. Authorities have not detailed injuries. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the violence “absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable”.
At Columbia, New York City police officers entered campus after the university requested help. They cleared a tent encampment, along with Hamilton Hall where a stream of officers used a ladder to climb through a second-floor window. Protesters had seized the Ivy League school building about 20 hours earlier. Police loaded dozens of detainees onto a bus, their hands bound behind their backs by zip-ties, the scene illuminated with the flashing red and blue lights of police vehicles. The police action happened on the 56th anniversary of a similar move to quash the occupation of Hamilton Hall by students protesting racism and Vietnam War.
University Prez Minouche Shafik asked police to stay on campus until at least May 17 – two days after graduation. Shafik said the occupiers had vandalised property. Mayor Adams blamed the Columbia protest on outside agitators. Pressed, however, about identities of the “outside agitators” cited by the mayor, officials repeatedly declined to provide details.
On Wednesday, over 100 people, most identifying themselves as Columbia faculty, marched near the campus, chanting slogans, including “How many kids did you arrest today?”
Blocks away from Columbia, at City College of New York, demonstrators were in a standoff with police outside the public college’s main gate. Video posted online by reporters late Tuesday showed officers forcing some people to the ground and shoving others as they cleared the street and sidewalks.
More than 1,300 protesters have been taken into custody on US campuses since 108 were arrested at Columbia on April 18, according to a tally by NYT.
Officials at Portland State University in Oregon urged protesters to leave a library that they had occupied. The police also moved into an encampment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, arresting 30 people, but protesters returned later in the day.
(With inputs from NYT and AP)
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