Hundreds of helmeted police swarmed the site of a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of California at Los Angeles early on Thursday, firing flash bangs, arresting defiant demonstrators and dismantling their encampment.
The pre-dawn police crackdown at UCLA marked the latest flashpoint in mounting tensions on U.S. college campuses, where protests over Israel's war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and with law enforcement.
"I'm a student here. I'm an English major," one student said to television cameras, as police dragged him away. "Please don't fail us. Don't fail us."
Live TV footage showed officers taking down tents, tearing apart barricades and removing the encampment, while arrested protesters sat with their hands restrained behind their backs with zip-ties.
i cannot believe they think we are stupid enough to accept that shooting rubber bullets at unarmed student protestors on public property is justified and morally correct.
paternalistic bullshit like that breeds hatred and contempt; they are making their own enemies in order to justify more crackdowns, and more fascist behavior.
it's dark, but it will pass. i hope for the better.
It receives federal funds so yes in a limited way it is. Doesn't matter though because they have rights as a paying customer redressing both the government and their school.
Public property as we knew it in the 60's has been completely privatised. Our legal system definitions of public spaces haven't caught up with the modern reality of these spaces so let's not defend police brutality with this "was it REALLY a public space" semantic bullshit.
UCLA had canceled classes for the day on Wednesday following a violent clash between the encampment's occupants and a group of masked counter-demonstrators who mounted a surprise assault late Tuesday night on the tent city.
The occupants of the camp, set up last week, had remained mostly peaceful before the melee, in which both sides traded blows and doused each other with pepper spray.
It's an excellent analogue to what's going on in West Bank and Gaza. Violent Israeli settlers attack a peaceful Palestian camp, there is resistance to the aggression, then the big guns arrive to defend the Israelis and do the rest of the work to raid, displace, arrest and/or kill the Palestinian side.
I didn't realize there was a time, place and manner for us to freely express ourselves in protest. I thought it was an American thing to protest. Not anymore I guess.
They don't. All UC Campuses are private property of the UC Regents. Just because something is owned by the state, that doesn't mean there are no rules. A courtroom is a good example. These students have no legal right to camp there without permission.
A better question is, does this eviction diffuse the issue? I would say "no". The campers will be back anyway. But I also think the camping is distracting from the actual point of the protest. Why don't these students just sleep in their beds and show up everyday to protest? Why do they need to be there at night when nobody sees them?
Their strategy is very clearly making the university uncomfortable and getting the entire nation discussing it, so I'd say it's working pretty well so far.
All UC Campuses are private property of the UC Regents.
That doesn't sound right. The University of California system is public, the regents are appointed by the governor. UC property is owned by the state of California.
Yes because Biden directed the police personally. You’re thinking of what Trump would do since he would just tweet directly at the police and tell them not to be gentle with the protestors.
Trump would be 1000% worse so stop with the “don’t vote for Biden and let Trump win” Russian propoganda.