Police deployed a heavy presence on American college campuses on Wednesday after forcibly ending several weeks of protests against Israel's war with Hamas.
Dozens of police cars patrolled the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in response to violent clashes overnight when counter-protesters attacked an encampment of pro-Palestinian students.
At Columbia University in New York City, the epicenter of the demonstrations, police were on standby after officers marched on campus late Tuesday to end protests there.
The sight of helmeted police at two of America's most prestigious universities has left some students dismayed.
“I don't think we should have a heavy police presence on campus,” UCLA student Mark Torre, 22, told AFP as he surveyed the scene from behind metal barriers.
“But more and more, day by day, I think it's a necessary evil to at least maintain safety on campus.”
In Columbia and at the City University of New York, where police cleared protesters overnight, some students denounced the “rough and aggressive” tactics used by officers.
“We were attacked and brutally arrested. And I was held for six hours before I was released, badly beaten, trampled and cut to pieces,” said a CUNY student who gave only his name when Jose told AFP.
A medical student who provided treatment to student detainees when they were released described a litany of injuries.
“We've seen things like severe head trauma, concussions, someone was knocked unconscious by police in the camp, someone was thrown down the stairs,” said the student, who gave her name as Isabel.
About 300 arrests were made in Columbia and CUNY, Police Commissioner Edward Caban told a news conference Wednesday.
Mayor Eric Adams blamed “outside agitators” for escalating tensions. Columbia students have denied that outsiders were involved.
University President Minouche Shafik, who has come under fire for her decision to involve police, said Wednesday that the turn of events “filled me with deep sadness.”
“I am sorry that we have reached this point,” she said in a statement.
Wave of unrest on campus
Protesters have gathered at at least 30 U.S. universities since last month, often setting up tent camps to protest the rising death toll from Israel's war in the Gaza Strip.
The protests posed a challenge for university administrators trying to balance free speech with complaints about criminal activity, anti-Semitism and hate speech.
The administration of President Joe Biden — whose support for Israel has outraged many protesters — has also tried to toe that line.
“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,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters . .
Biden's rival in the November election, Donald Trump, expressed full support for the police response in Columbia.
“It was beautiful to look at. The best of New York,” he said at a meeting in Wisconsin.
“To every university president, I say: Remove the encampments immediately, destroy the radicals and take back our campuses for all normal students.”
'Unlawful installation'
By Tuesday evening, police had entered Columbia's campus and entered Hamilton Hall through a second-floor window — barricaded by protesters — before leading people out in handcuffs. They also evacuated the large tent camp.
In Los Angeles, fireworks were thrown as counter-protesters sprayed chemicals on the pro-Palestinian camp and tried to tear down wooden planks and metal barricades before police finally arrived.
On Wednesday, students used loudspeakers to call on protesters to proceed to a camp blocking the entrance to one of the school's main libraries, which had graffiti reading “Liberate Gaza.”
And according to American media, students at Fordham University, a Jesuit institution also in New York, launched their own campus protest on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, police descended on the University of Wisconsin in Madison and arrested several protesters, TV footage showed.
Law enforcement officers wearing helmets and batons arrived at the University of Texas at Dallas and began tearing down parts of a student camp there, TV footage showed.
At the University of Arizona, police said they used “chemical irritant munitions” to disperse “an unlawful assembly.”
The Gaza war began when Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, killing around 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
More than 34,500 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive, according to the Israeli Health Ministry.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)