Police officers made dozens of arrests this Thursday after breaking into the pro-Palestinian camp installed at the University of California (UCLA) in Los Angeles.
According to local media, dozens of officers arrived at the university camp and faced resistance from hundreds of protesters as they tried to remove metal and wooden barriers and other objects that prevented access.
The actions of the agents began in the early hours of this Thursday, when the police launched flares over the camp that caused loud explosions, according to the Los Angeles Times.
CNN reported several previous police attempts to penetrate the area where the protesters were entrenched without success and that special operations service units participated in the operation.
In the videos to which the network has had access, you can see the police wearing riot gear, helmets, gas masks, zip ties and preparing their batons when they entered the camp of demonstrators protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.
The police action was followed by the firing of tear gas, while the officers were dismantling the tents. The predawn police crackdown at UCLA, which included several arrests, marked the latest flashpoint in rising tensions on U.S. college campuses, where protests over Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza have led to clashes between students and with the authorities.
Some of the protesters knelt on the ground with their arms tied behind their backs as officers detained them and continued taking more people out of the camp, CNN reports.
The detainees are transferred in buses that have been arranged near the Californian university campus.
The incidents occurred after the campers refused to leave the UCLA facilities throughout the night as the authorities had asked them to.
The university had declared the concentration “illegal” two days ago and the police had ordered its dismantling. But a group of protesters, between 300 and 500, wearing helmets, glasses and breathing masks, have barricaded themselves in the square, which is protected with wooden boards and other elements. While around 2,000 more have gathered outside the barricades in support.
UCLA canceled its classes this Wednesday after the police intervention on campus that occurred during the early hours of that day to stop violent clashes between groups of pro-Israel protesters and those demanding to stop the war in Gaza.
The educational center informed the students, via email, of the cancellation of all classes on Wednesday and informed them that police officers would remain in the main buildings, next to the camp.
Police were deployed early Wednesday “due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment (set up by pro-Palestinian protesters) on their campus,” according to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on social media.
The police had been waiting for hours around the square for orders to act. They finally began to force their way into the camp around 3:15 a.m. (local time) this Thursday to arrest the occupants who refused to leave. The raid was led by a unit of California Highway Patrol officers carrying shields and batons.
The police action in Los Angeles adds to the similar incidents that have taken place in dozens of universities throughout the United States in recent days and have resulted in several hundred arrests, the most serious occurring at Columbia (New York). and in Wisconsin.
