Arrests continue on campuses around the U.S. as police dismantle camps of students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza. At UCLA, officers arrested more than 100 people in sometimes violent confrontations. Most protesters left the library at Portland State University, where police on Thursday were preparing to arrest those who remained behind barricades.
Other arrests were made at Yale, Dartmouth, and the New York State universities at Buffalo and Stony Brook. The Associated Press has tallied more than 1,600 arrests at 30 schools.
Currently:
— Police using flash-bangs break up human chains at UCLA, making arrests and dismantling protest
— Biden mum on campus crackdowns as Republicans seek to use protests against Democrats
— Eying campus protests, House passes bill to define criticism of Israel as antisemitic
— Timeline: How Columbia University’s protest launched campus demonstrations around the U.S.
Here’s the latest:
PULITZER PRIZE BOARD COMMENTS STUDENT JOURNALISTS COVERING PROTESTS
Journalism’s highest awards are administered by Columbia University, where the Pulitzer Prize Board is praising the work of student journalists in covering campus protests around the country.
The board specifically recognized “the extraordinary real-time reporting” of student journalists at Columbia, where the nationwide campus demonstrations began on April 17.
With other media blocked from entering the campus, these students became the eyes and ears for many as New York police arrested protesters.
“In the spirit of press freedom, these students worked to document a major national news event under difficult and dangerous circumstances at risk of arrest,” the board wrote.
POLICE CLEARING PROTESTERS OUT OF PORTLAND STATE LIBRARY; 15 POLICE VEHICLES DAMAGED
Police have started working to clear pro-Palestinian rights demonstrators out of a library at Portland State University in Oregon. The protesters have been occupying the Millar Library since Monday. They spraypainted graffiti on inside walls and knocked over or piled up furniture to create barricades.
University President Ann Cudd said in a written statement late Wednesday that classes would resume on Thursday, but Portland State said in a morning social media post that the campus will instead be closed due to the police activity.
Cudd said Wednesday that about 50 protesters had vacated the Millar Library after administrators promised not to seek criminal charges, expulsion or other discipline against participants who left peacefully, but others — including non-students — remained.
Portland Police also said early Thursday 15 vehicles at the department’s training facility were damaged by arson overnight; it was not immediately clear if that was related to the protest.
TRUMP, AT HUSH MONEY TRIAL, PRAISES POLICE FOR CLEARING CAMPUS PROTESTS
Former President Donald Trump commended police who cleared pro-Palestinian protesters from college campuses as he arrived in court Thursday morning for another day of his criminal hush money trial.
“It’s a shame. I’m so proud of the New York’s finest. They’re great,” Trump told reporters after police cleared demonstrators who had taken over an academic building at Columbia University. “They did a job in Columbia and likewise in Los Angeles they did a really good job at UCLA.”
Trump, in his comments, blamed the protests on “the radical left,” which he has railed against for years.
“This is a movement from the left, not from the right. The right is not your problem, despite what like law enforcement likes to say,” Trump said. “These are radical left lunatics. And they’ve got to be stopped.”
VIDEO SHOWS YALE OFFICERS ARRESTING FOUR AMONG CROWD OF HUNDREDS
Yale police arrested four people Wednesday night after around 200 demonstrators had marched to the school president’s home and to the campus police department, Yale officials said. School officials said in a statement Thursday that protesters ignored repeated warnings that they were violating university policy on occupying parts of campus without permission. Two of those arrested were students, and the others were not, Yale said.
The protest group Occupy Yale said campus police were violent during the arrests and did not issue warnings beforehand. The group posted a video in Instagram showing officers bringing one arrestee to the ground and pinning another on a sidewalk.
“A peaceful protest,” Occupy Yale said. “Police officers seized, pushed, and brutalized people. Is this what you call keeping campus safe?”
Wednesday night’s protest at Yale came a day after a U.S. House of Representatives committee announced that the presidents of Yale, UCLA and Michigan will appear before the panel on May 23 to answer questions about campus protests.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE PRESIDENT DEFENDS ARRESTS OF 90 PEOPLE AT PROTEST
Dartmouth College President Sian Leah Beilock defended the decision to arrest around 90 people Wednesday night, hours after an encampment had set up protesting the war.
“Last night, people felt so strongly about their beliefs that they were willing to face disciplinary action and arrest. While there is bravery in that, part of choosing to engage in this way is not just acknowledging — but accepting — that actions have consequences,” she said in a statement. She cited campus policies prohibiting demonstrations that interfere with Dartmouth’s academic mission or increase safety risks.
“When policies like these have been ignored on other campuses, hate and violence have thrived — events, like commencement, are canceled, instruction is forced to go remote, and, worst of all, abhorrent antisemitism and Islamophobia reign,” Beilock said.
PRO-PALESTINIAN DEMONSTRATORS ARRESTED AT NEW YORK STATE UNIVERSITIES
In New York, protesters were arrested overnight at Stony Brook University and the University at Buffalo, two campuses of the state university system.
A University at Buffalo spokesperson said 16 people were arrested late Wednesday after failing to comply with an order to disperse. Newsday reported that police arrested several dozen protesters at a Stony Brook encampment early Thursday and forced others to leave.
POLICE DISMANTLING UCLA TENT CAMP, TAKING STUDENTS INTO CUSTODY
Police removed barricades and began dismantling a pro-Palestinian demonstrators’ fortified encampment early Thursday at the University of California, Los Angeles, after hundreds of protesters defied orders to leave. Some people were detained, 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.
With police helicopters hovering, the air was pierced by the sound of flash-bangs, which produce a bright light and a loud noise to disorient and stun people. Protesters chanted, “Where were you last night?” at the officers, in reference to Tuesday night, when counterprotesters attacked the encampment and the UCLA administration and campus police took hours to respond.
In the Mideast, Iranian state television carried live images of the police action, as did Qatar’s pan-Arab Al Jazeera satellite network. Live images of Los Angeles also played across Israeli television networks, as well.
California Highway Patrol officers poured into the campus by the hundreds early Thursday. Wearing face shields and protective vests, they stood with their batons protruding out to separate them from demonstrators, who wore helmets and gas masks and chanted, “You want peace. We want justice.”
