LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police arrested pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses across the country overnight, notably at the University of California, Los Angeles, where chaotic scenes played out early Thursday as officers in riot gear surged against a crowd of demonstrators.
Police removed barricades and began dismantling demonstrators’ fortified encampment at UCLA after hundreds of protesters defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds.
At least 132 people were arrested at UCLA, said Sgt. Alejandro Rubio of the California Highway Patrol. Rubio said the arrestees were being booked at the county jails complex near downtown Los Angeles. UCLA police will determine what if any charges to seek.
Numerous workers entered the former encampment site Thursday morning and began an extensive cleanup. Tents and heaps of trash covered campus sidewalks and lawns. Some buildings were covered in graffiti.
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The arrests came after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loudspeakers if people did not disperse. A crowd of more than 1,000 had gathered on campus, including inside a barricaded tent encampment. Protesters and police shoved and scuffled as officers encountered resistance. Video showed police pulling off protesters’ helmets and goggles as they were detained.
With police helicopters hovering, the sound of flash-bangs — which produce a bright light and a loud noise to disorient and stun — pierced the air. Protesters chanted at the officers, “Where were you last night?” Late Tuesday, counterprotesters attack the encampment and the UCLA administration and campus police took hours to respond.
Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century. The ensuing police crackdowns echoed actions decades ago against a much larger protest movement protesting the Vietnam War.
Demonstrations — and arrests — have occurred in almost every corner of the nation. Seventeen people were arrested on criminal trespass charges Wednesday at the University of Texas at Dallas after demonstrators refused to comply with law enforcement orders to remove an encampment from the school’s main walkway, a university spokeswoman said in a statement Thursday.
Yale University police arrested four people, including two students, Wednesday night after around 200 demonstrators marched to the school president’s home and the campus police department, school officials said. Protesters ignored repeated warnings that they cannot occupy parts of campus without permission, school officials said in a statement Thursday.
The protest group Occupy Yale said campus police were violent during the arrests and did not issue warnings. The group posted a video on Instagram showing officers taking one person to the ground and pinning another to a sidewalk.
“A peaceful protest,” Occupy Yale said. “Police officers seized, pushed, and brutalized people. Is this what you call keeping campus safe?”
In Oregon, police began to clear pro-Palestinian rights demonstrators out of the Millar Library at Portland State University, which they have been occupying since Monday.
They spray-painted graffiti inside and knocked over or piled up furniture to create barricades. Portland State said on social media Thursday that campus would remain closed because of the police activity.
University President Ann Cudd said Wednesday that about 50 protesters vacated the library after administrators promised not to seek criminal charges, expulsion or other discipline if they left…
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