Police have arrested more than 2,000 people during pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, according to data reviewed Thursday by NBC News and the Associated Press.
Protests and arrests took place in almost every corner of the country. But in the past 24 hours, they have drawn the most attention at the University of California, Los Angeles, where chaotic scenes unfolded Thursday morning as police in riot gear surged on a crowd of demonstrators.
Hundreds of protesters at UCLA defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash bangs to disperse the crowd.
209 protesters were arrested, the California Highway Patrol said, citing data from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Rubio said they were incarcerated at the county jail complex near downtown Los Angeles. UCLA Police will determine what charges to file.
According to the university, 300 other people voluntarily left the camp throughout the hours-long standoff, with some leaving the camp with their hands on their heads in peaceful surrender. Others fled as baton-wielding officers rushed into hordes of more than 1,000 people.
Police officers in riot gear confronted protesters on the UCLA campus early Thursday after demonstrators ignored orders to disperse.
Later Thursday morning, workers removed the barricades and dismantled the protesters’ fortified encampment. Bulldozers picked up bags of garbage and tents. Some buildings were covered in graffiti.
Encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or with companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread to campuses across the country in a student movement unprecedented this century.
Protests began at Columbia University on April 17, with students calling for an end to the war between Israel and Hamas, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry . Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel on October 7.
California Highway Patrol officers flocked to the UCLA campus by the hundreds early Thursday. Wearing face shields and protective vests, they brandished their batons to separate themselves from the protesters, who wore helmets and gas masks and chanted: “You want peace. We want justice.
Photos: Pro-Palestinian protests on American college campuses
For hours, police warned over loudspeakers that there would be arrests if the crowd of more than 1,000 people did not disperse. Protesters and police jostled and scuffled. Police helicopters flew overhead and the sound of flash bangs pierced the air. Police removed the demonstrators’ helmets and goggles during their arrest.
Police methodically destroyed the camp’s barricade made of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters, then tore down dozens of awnings and tents. The number of protesters dwindled throughout the morning, with some leaving voluntarily with their hands raised and others arrested by police.
The law enforcement presence and continued warnings contrasted with the scene Tuesday evening, when counterprotesters attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones, releasing pepper spray and destroying barriers. Fighting between the two sides continued for hours before police intervened. No one was arrested, but at least 15 protesters were injured. The authorities’ lukewarm response drew criticism from political leaders, Muslim students and advocacy groups.
On Wednesday afternoon, a small town sprung up inside the reinforced encampment, with hundreds of people and tents on the quad. Protesters rebuilt the makeshift barriers around their tents as state and campus police looked on.
Some protesters recited Muslim prayers as the sun set, while others chanted “we are not leaving” or handed out goggles and surgical masks. They wore helmets and scarves and discussed the best ways to deal with pepper spray or tear gas.
The crowd grew as the night wore on and more officers flocked to campus.
Ariel Dardashti, a UCLA graduate majoring in global studies and sociology, said no student should feel unsafe on campus.
“It should not get to the point where students are being arrested,” Dardashti said on campus Thursday.
Dardashti said he could understand the trauma suffered by Palestinians.
New York police officers arrived at Columbia University shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday evening to evacuate protesters barricaded inside Hamilton Hall.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday denounced the delay in law enforcement’s response and UCLA Chancellor Gene Block promised to investigate. University of California System Executive Michael Drake ordered an “independent review of the university’s planning, actions, and law enforcement response.”
“The community needs to feel that the police are protecting them and not allowing others to harm them,” Rebecca Husaini, chief of staff for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said at a news conference Wednesday.
Iranian state television broadcast live footage of the police action at UCLA, as did Qatar’s pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera. Live footage from Los Angeles was also broadcast on Israeli television networks.
Israel has called the protests anti-Semitic, while critics of Israel say it is using the allegations to silence opposition. Although some demonstrators were filmed making anti-Semitic remarks or violent threats, the protest’s organizers — some of whom are Jewish — call it a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.
President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the right of students to peacefully protest but denounced the disorder of recent days.
Republican leaders in California blasted university administrations for failing to protect Jewish students and allowing protests to degenerate into “anarchy and violence.” They called for the firing of leaders at UCLA and Cal Poly Humboldt and pushed for a proposal to cut the salaries of university administrators.
“We have a lot of people at these universities making six-figure salaries and they’ve been sitting idly by and doing nothing,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher told reporters. “There has to be accountability.”
Meanwhile, protest encampments at schools across the United States have been evacuated by police – leading to further arrests – or closed voluntarily. In New York, these included the City College of New York, Fordham University, Stony Brook University, and the University at Buffalo. Others nationally included the University of New Hampshire in Durham, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and Tulane University in New Orleans.
An Illinois university professor said he suffered several broken ribs and a broken hand during a pro-Palestinian protest Saturday at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Bystander video shows the arrest of Steve Tamari, a history professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He appears to be approaching to take videos or photos of the arrested demonstrators when several police officers brutally shoot him dead.
In an article on the social platform X, Sandra Tamari said that her husband needed surgery on his hand and had nine broken ribs.
Tamari said in a statement Thursday that it was “a small price to pay for the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.” Campus police referred questions to the university’s communications department, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Upcoming graduations have become a concern.
The chancellor of Florida State University has ordered campus presidents to take all necessary measures to avoid disruption of ceremonies. At the same time, University of Minnesota officials reached an agreement with protesters not to disrupt the start of work. Similar agreements have been reached at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago and Brown University in Rhode Island.
Meanwhile, a group of Columbia University professors on Thursday condemned the school’s administration for asking police to evict protesters in what the group called a “horrific police attack on our students.” “. Police officers burst into a building Tuesday, dispersing a protest that had paralyzed the school.
US college campuses have become a flashpoint, with school leaders facing scrutiny over their handling of allegations of anti-Semitism and the right to free speech. The presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania have resigned following questions during a congressional hearing about whether calls for genocide of Jews on campus would violate the school’s conduct policy.
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Offenhartz and Frederick reported from New York. Associated Press journalists across the country contributed to this report, including Julie Watson, Krysta Fauria, John Antczak, Christopher L. Keller, Lisa Baumann, Stefanie Dazio, Jae C. Hong, Colleen Long, Karen Matthews, Sarah Brumfield , Carolyn Thompson, Philip Marcelo, Steve Karnowski and Eugene Johnson.
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