The pro-Palestinian demonstration that paralyzed Columbia University ended dramatically, police carrying riot shields burst into a building that protesters had taken over the night before and made dozens of arrests. On the other side of the country, clashes broke out early Wednesdayy between dueling groups at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). And police and protesters clashed on the University of Arizona’s Tuscon campus, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
New York City officers entered the Columbia campus Tuesday evening after the university requested assistance, according to a statement released by a spokesperson. A tent encampment on school grounds was cleared, along with Hamilton Hall, where a stream of officers used a ladder to climb through a second-story window and gain entry.
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Protesters calling on the Ivy League university to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza had taken over the hall about 20 hours earlier.
“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized and boarded up, we had no choice,” the school said. “The decision to contact the NYPD was a response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are defending. We have made clear that campus life cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and law.
Police spokesman Carlos Nieves said there were no immediate reports of injuries. The arrests came after protesters ignored an earlier ultimatum to abandon the encampment Monday or face suspension and deployment as other universities stepped up efforts to end the Colombia-inspired protests.
Meanwhile, violence broke out overnight at UCLA between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters. Police wearing face shields formed a line but did not immediately intervene.
People were throwing chairs, shoving and kicking each other. Some armed with sticks hit others. Before police arrived, a group piled on top of a person on the ground, kicking and hitting them until others pulled them out of the fray.
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“Horrific acts of violence took place at the camp this evening and we immediately called law enforcement for mutual aid,” Mary Osako, a senior UCLA official, told the campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spoke with the university’s chancellor and said police would respond to the school’s request, according to a post on the social media platform words Zach Seidl.
The clashes took place just outside a tent encampment, where pro-Palestinian protesters erected barricades and plywood for protection – and counter-protesters tried to bring them down.
Security was increased on campus Tuesday after officials said there were “physical altercations” between factions of protesters.
Police have invaded other campuses in the United States over the past two weeks, leading to clashes and more than 1,000 arrests. In rarer cases, university officials and protest leaders have reached agreements to limit disruptions to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.
Just a few blocks from Columbia, at the City College of New York, protesters clashed with police in front of the main entrance to the public college. Video posted to social media by journalists at the scene Tuesday evening showed police knocking some people to the ground and shoving others as they evacuated people from the street and sidewalks. Many detained protesters were taken away on city buses.
After police arrived, officers placed a Palestinian flag on top of the City College flagpole, balled it up and threw it to the ground before raising an American flag.
Brown University, another member of the Ivy League, reached an agreement Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus. The protesters said they would close their encampment in exchange for a vote by trustees to divest from Israel in October. The compromise appears to be the first time an American university has agreed to vote on divestment following the protests.
The Arizona Daily Star says police officers in riot gear and gas masks fired what they call non-lethal chemical weapons as they moved toward protesters on the University’s Tucson campus from Arizona. The newspaper said arrests were made and “shoving broke out between some demonstrators and the advancing officers, and a barrage of objects were thrown into the air toward the officers in a noisy and chaotic scene.” before the protesters withdrew and the camp was destroyed. up.
The Columbia Police action came on the 56th anniversary of a similar move to quash the occupation of Hamilton Hall by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.
The police department said earlier Tuesday that officers would not enter the grounds without the request of the college administration or an imminent emergency. From now on, the police will be there until May 17, the end date of the university’s opening ceremonies.
In a letter to top NYPD officials, Columbia President Minouche Shafik said the administration requested that police remove protesters from the occupied building and a nearby tent encampment “with the deepest regret” .
Shafik also referenced the idea, first put forward by New York City Mayor Eric Adams earlier in the day, that the group occupying Hamilton was “led by individuals who are not not affiliated with the university.”
Neither provided specific evidence to support this claim, which was disputed by protest organizers and participants.
NYPD officials have made similar statements about “outside agitators” during the massive grassroots protests against racial injustice that erupted in the city following the death of George Floyd in 2020. In some cases, senior NYPD officials police have falsely characterized them as peaceful marches organized by well-known neighborhoods. activists as the work of violent extremists.
Before police arrived in Columbia, the White House condemned clashes there and at California State Polytechnic University in Humboldt, where demonstrators occupied two buildings for more than a year. week until baton-wielding police officers intervened early Tuesday and arrested 25 people.
President Biden believes having students occupying a university building is “absolutely the wrong approach,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Later, former President Donald Trump called into Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News Channel to comment on the unrest in Colombia as live footage of police evacuating Hamilton Hall was broadcast. Trump praised the officers. “But it should never have come to this,” he told Hannity.
The nationwide campus protests began at Columbia in response to the Israeli offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7. The militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages. By promising to eradicate Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local Health Ministry.
While ceasefire negotiations appeared to be gaining momentum, it was unclear whether those talks would inspire an easing of protests.
Israel and its supporters have called the university protests anti-Semitic, while Israel’s critics say it is using the allegations to silence opposition. Although some demonstrators have been filmed making anti-Semitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protest against the war.
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