Hundreds of police officers entered the University of California Los Angeles carrying shields and batons to disperse a pro-Palestinian protest camp that was attacked by pro-Israel supporters less than 24 hours ago.
The helmeted police officers worked to remove barriers, wooden panels and other objects that then served as barriers to the camp, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The officers made their way onto the campus in the early morning hours around 3:15 a.m. PDT (3:45 p.m. IST) to arrest residents who refused to leave.
UCLA BREAKING 🚨: CHP riot police have broken through, police have entered the camp. PEOPLE ARE GIVEN. pic.twitter.com/uxcAOReRp5
— Anthony Cabassa (@AnthonyCabassa_) May 2, 2024
As it started around sunset on Wednesday, about 300 to 500 police officers were seen inside the camp, while another about 2,000 gathered outside the barriacades as the officers in tactical gear first began reporting to the UCLA campus, Reuters reported below mention of a local television.
Police used flash-bang tupe devices that echoed across the campus, according to reports. Some protesters fought back, shouting, “push them back” and flashing bright lights in the eyes of police. Some of them had donned hard hats, goggles and breathing masks in anticipation of the siege a day after the university declared the encampment. unlawful.
Through repeated loudspeaker announcements, police asked demonstrators to clear the protest zone before entering.
The clash before the crackdown
A group of masked counter-protesters launched a surprise attack on the tent city, leading to a violent clash between the encampment's residents. Residents of the open-air protest camp, set up last week, had remained otherwise peaceful before the clash, with both sides trading blows and pepper spraying each other.
The confrontation lasted two to three hours early Wednesday morning before police restored order. A spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom later criticized the “limited and delayed campus law enforcement response” to the unrest as “unacceptable.”
After the clashes, the university said the campus, which enrolls nearly 52,000 students, including undergraduate and graduate students, would remain closed except for limited activities on Thursday and Friday.
Protests at Columbia University
The police action in UCLA came a day after police in New York arrested pro-Palestinian activists who occupied a building at Columbia University and removed a tent city from the Ivy League school's campus.
The clashes at UCLA and in New York were part of the largest outbreak of American student activism since the anti-racism rallies and marches of 2020.
Students have gathered or set up tent camps at dozens of schools across the US in recent days, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and demanding that schools be divested from companies that support the Israeli government. Many schools have called in the police to suppress the protests.