UCLA swarmed by riot police in latest clampdown on pro-Palestinian student protest
Los Angeles, California - Hundreds of police officers in riot gear moved in to start tearing down the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles on Thursday as the nationwide repression of college campus protests continued.
Officers in riot gear moved in to start forcefully removing some barricades around the protest encampment and, CNN footage showed, with several protesters detained.
Cops used teargas and flashbangs on crowds who had gathered outside the encampment and chanted "Let them go!" an AFP journalist at the scene reported as helicopters hovered overhead.
"This is a peaceful protest, there are no counter-protestors tonight, so to call the police on them is despicable. This city should support them," LA resident Jack Bedrosian who came along to show support told AFP.
The large police presence, including California Highway Patrol and LAPD officers, came 24 hours after law enforcement was nowhere to be seen for hours while pro-Israel gangs violently attacked students in the encampment.
"There is a large police presence from multiple law enforcement agencies after outside mobs attacked peaceful student protestors last night with no one protecting them," LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia posted on social media site X from the campus earlier.
"Students now face police. We urge UCLA & City leaders to protect students, not do more harm."
UCLA said classes would be remote on Thursday and Friday due to the "emergency on campus," and warned students to avoid the protest area.
Hundreds of students arrested in large-scale police crackdown
Demonstrators have gathered in dozens upon dozens of US universities since last month, often erecting tent encampments to protest the soaring death toll caused by Israel in the Gaza.
Police tore down a protest encampment at the University of Texas on Wednesday, arresting more than a dozen people, while several people were also detained at Fordham University in New York.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, protesters dug in, blocking an avenue near the center of the campus in Cambridge during the height of Wednesday afternoon's rush hour commute.
The University of Texas Dallas saw police remove an encampment and arrest at least 17 people for "criminal trespass," the school said.
At Columbia and at the City University of New York, where police violently cleared out demonstrators overnight into Wednesday, students decried the police behavior.
"We were assaulted, brutally arrested. And I was held for up to six hours before being released, pretty banged up, got stomped on, got cut up," one CUNY student who gave his name only as Jose told AFP.
A medical student offering treatment to detainees as they were released described a litany of injuries.
"We've seen things like severe head traumas, concussions, someone was knocked unconscious in the encampment by police, someone was thrown down the stairs," said the student, who gave her name as Isabel.
About 300 arrests were made at Columbia and CUNY, Police Commissioner Edward Caban said. Mayor Eric Adams blamed "outside agitators" for ratcheting up tensions, offering no evidence for his claims. Columbia students have denied outsiders were involved.
Cover photo: ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP