US campus protests: arrests in Dallas and New York as officers move against demonstrators – live
People chant against the Israel-Gaza war during a protest set up in a plaza at the University of Texas in Dallas.
LIVE – Updated at 01:26
At least 17 people reportedly arrested as a Dallas encampment was cleared; NYPD say they have arrested number of individuals.
University of Texas in Dallas reportedly requested assistance from police
01:26
Local media is reporting that law enforcement in helmets and carrying batons arrived at the University of Texas in Dallas (UTD) and began taking down parts of a student encampment there after a request for assistance from university officials.
It came after UTD officials approached the encampment in the afternoon on Wednesday, with a written order for students to leave.
“Failure to comply with this instruction may result in removal for criminal trespass or other violations of state law and/or sanctions under the student code of conduct as appropriate,” the letter read, according to student protesters.
01:15
Local media in are reporting that many state troopers have now left the campus at the University of Texas, Dallas. Seventeen people have reportedly been arrested after the university gave notice to protesters to remove their encampment.
The protesters are understood to have now moved to another part of the campus to continue their demonstrations.
02 May 2024 00:58
A reminder, this latest round of disorder on US campuses began less than 24 hours ago when police arrested almost 300 pro-Palestine protesters at the City College of New York and Columbia University.
Both universities requested police intervene after students set up encampments and barricaded themselves inside university buildings.
There was a large police presence at the New York campuses before they entered and broke up the encampments.
Cuny students with the university’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment group have criticised New York police officers for what they called the “brutal and spineless” arrests of protesters.
The Guardian has put together this video summary of the events of Tuesday night in New York.
This is Jonathan Yerushalmy, picking up our live coverage from Lois Beckett
02 May 2024 00:50
Police are everywhere on UCLA’s campus today. But where were they last night?
In the aftermath of a violent attack last night on a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA, there are large numbers of police across the Los Angeles campus.
But students, faculty, and university and state officials still have lots of questions about where law enforcement agencies were last night, and why students were violently attacked for at least four hours while campus police and city police did not respond.
The University of California has promised an independent investigation into what happened on campus. Students at the pro-Palestine encampment that was attacked have described fearing for their lives while both campus security and police stood by and failed to intervene as young men and women where physically assaulted and sprayed with pepper spray, bear mace, and other chemical agents.
02 May 2024 00:37
If you’re just joining us now, here’s a summary of what else has happened in campus protests across the US today:
Michael Drake, the president of the University of California system, has ordered an independent review of the UCLA administration’s planning, after a late-night attack on a pro-Palestinian student encampment resulted in at least 15 people being injured.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, confirmed that 280 people on the Columbia University and Cuny campuses had been arrested on Tuesday. Bragg has not confirmed reports from city and police officials that “outside agitators” had infiltrated student-led protests.
Cuny students with the university’s Gaza Solidarity encampment criticized New York police officers for their “brutal and spineless” arrests of protesters. “We will not be intimidated by these brutal and spineless tactics … We will not stop until these demands are met,” read a statement from students posted on social media.
California governor Gavin Newsom condemned the violence at UCLA. Posting on X, he criticized the “limited and delayed” law enforcement response on Tuesday night, describing it as “unacceptable”.
UCLA cancelled all classes on Wednesday after counter-demonstrators attacked pro-Palestine protesters overnight. “Due to the distress caused by the violence that took place on Royce Quad late last night and early this morning, all classes are cancelled today,” read a statement from the university.
Minouche Shafik, the Columbia University president, sent an email following the use of New York police to lead mass arrests at Tuesday’s protests on campus. In the email sent Wednesday, Shafik said that NYPD had been used because “students and outside activists [were] breaking Hamilton Hall doors, mistreating our Public Safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property … ”.
New York police said the wife of a man convicted of terrorism was not at protests on Columbia’s campus on Tuesday, walking back claims from city and police officials. NYPD deputy commissioner Rebecca Weiner said the woman, who has yet to be publicly identified, was not a part of any protests last night and that police “have no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing on her part”, the New York Daily News reported.
At least one high school started their own encampment in solidarity with university students at Columbia and beyond, according to a flyer from students at Iowa City’s City high.
Police tore down encampments at the University of Wisconsin, Madison early on Wednesday, in yet another crackdown on a peaceful student protest. Several protesters, mostly students, were detained by police.
Law enforcement in New York and Texas also made arrests and shut down pro-Palestine encampments at Fordham University in Manhattan and the University of Texas at Dallas.
02 May 2024 00:34
Emotional testimony from young people attacked last night at UCLA
The head of UCLA’s Muslim Student Association and members of the campus’s pro-Palestine encampment are holding a press conference right now, giving emotional descriptions of the violent assaults they faced last night, from being hit in the head and requiring stitches, to being bear-sprayed in the face. The university’s chancellor has publicly condemned “a group of instigators” for coming onto campus to deliberately attack a student encampment advocating for Palestinian rights.
The young people attacked described the counter-protesters attacking them as “pro-Israel protesters” or “Zionist supporters”. Some of them are displaying the injuries they received.
“I saw women as young as 18 or 19 being punched in the face by 25- or 30-year-old men,” Aiden Doyle said.
“It was a war zone on our campus,” another student said. “We were attacked by the Zionists.”
“My son who goes here was pepper-sprayed last night, not by the police, not by the school security forces, but by thugs,” a UCLA parent said.
Yusef, who declined to give his last name, described fearing for his life and texting his family group chat during what he described “the scariest moment of my life”.
He said he ended up going to the hospital for treatment for two serious head injuries that left his head covered in blood, but said that he felt comparatively lucky.
“I had the ability to go to a hospital last night. Currently in Gaza, there is zero fully functioning hospitals,” Yusef said. “My cousins who have passed away from this brutal genocide did not have the luxury to go to a hospital after the attack.”
Multiple speakers pushed back against media coverage that framed the violence last night as a fight between two groups of protesters.
“There was no brawl. There was only was group that was abused. There was not a fight … there was only one group that was attacking,” one speaker said, to applause and cheers from the crowd. “I was here till the break of day and I went back and saw the headlines. I was shocked and I felt that if this is how the media is going to treat us, what is going to happen as we move forward?”
Officers make arrests at pro-Palestinian protests in Dallas and New York
02 May 2024 00:30
At least 19 people were arrested as a pro-Palestinian protest encampment was cleared this afternoon at the University of Texas at Dallas, according to a local news channel, which said it was unclear whether all those arrested were students.
State troopers moved in on a peaceful protest encampment, the Associated Press and the BBC report.
“The effect of the state troopers has utterly changed the mood. There’s a lot of anger now, and chants of ‘shame on you’, ‘where were you in Uvalde’ and ‘why are you in riot gear’ are now echoing in Dallas,” BBC reporter Tom Bateman writes.
The arrests in Texas came as the New York police department arrested a number of people as they moved to disperse a protest at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in New York on Wednesday.
NYPD deputy commissioner Kaz Daughtry wrote on X: “We have placed the individuals who refused to disperse from the unlawful encampment inside a @FordhamNYC building under arrest.”
NYPD department chief Jeffrey Maddrey told Fox 5 that the police department “has cleared an encampment on Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus”.