Arrests, chaotic clashes at UCLA
LOS ANGELES • Police arrested anti-israel 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 and made arrests.
Police removed barricades and began dismantling demonstrators’ fortified encampment at UCLA after hundreds of protesters defied orders to leave, some of them forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds.
Numerous protesters were arrested, their hands bound with zip ties.
The action 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, both inside a barricaded tent encampment and outside it, in support. Protesters and police shoved and scuffled as officers encountered resistance. Video showed police pulling off helmets and goggles worn by some protesters as they were being detained.
With police helicopters hovering, the sound of flashbangs, which produce a bright light and a loud noise to disorient and stun people, pierced the air. Protesters chanted, “Where were you last night?” at the officers, in reference to Tuesday night, when counter-protesters attacked 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.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the right to protest but insisted that “order must prevail.”
“Dissent is essential for democracy,” he said at the White House. “But dissent must never lead to disorder.”
Biden said he did not support calls to send in the National Guard. He also said that the protests have not prompted him to reconsider his approach to the war in Gaza. The Democratic president has occasionally criticized Israel’s conduct but continued to supply it with weapons.
Yale University police arrested four people 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 were violating policy by occupying parts of campus without permission, school officials said in a statement Thursday. Two of those arrested were students, Yale said.
In Oregon, police have started working to clear anti-israel demonstrators out of a library at Portland State University.
The protesters have been occupying the Millar Library since Monday.