Police arrest pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University while clashes break out at UCLA

so let’s take you uh then straight away then to those live images we’ve got coming into us here at France 24 of the situation at UCLA uh University in Los Angeles the police they’re moving in as they did do at Colombia over the last few hours we’re going to cross straight to our correspondent Wasim cor who’s joining us from Los Angeles wasi update us then because it’s uh we’re just getting these images coming to into us we have very little information here in Paris but I’m sure you have hopefully anyway far more that you can tell us about what the situation there is yeah absolutely steuart uh what we know is that this all started about two hours two hours ago so ever since this encampment was uh set up on the UCLA campus for the past since the middle of last week there have been you know speeches songs dances throughout the day and at around 10:00 everyone just sort of packs up and the people in the encampment go to bed and so what we’ve been hearing from multiple eyewitnesses on the ground is at around 11:00 there was a group of uh clearly pro-israeli agitators who showed up on campus who tried to organize a counter protest bringing loudspeakers broadcasting very loud music also the sounds of uh screaming babies that is according to several journalists who were on the scene uh very distressing noises and then they started throwing cones fireworks at some of the tents that were that are on campus and of course there was some uh backlash from the pro Palestinian protesters who uh were trying to uh fend off those attackers using for example fire EXT extinguishers and so this has been going on for the better part of 2 hours now and the big question on everyone on everyone’s mind is where is police because there has been absolutely no intervention from either the UCLA Police Department or the Los Angeles Police Department there have been several um police helicopters circling the campus uh for the past couple of hours also local news helicopters to to broadcast uh this these live developments here on on local television but no sign of actual police we saw about eight or nine police vehicles rushing toward UCLA at some point but we didn’t see any uh any police presence materialized on that specific segment of the campus where all of those clashes are happening so it’s really been sort of an open brawl now for the for for the better part of two hours up till this point wesing the situation did seem to be uh relatively peaceful there didn’t it absolutely peaceful but with one major caveat is that today or Tuesday rather the Los Angeles Police Department did actually uh uh issue an order saying that the the encampment was unlawful and that the people who were on campus uh would be liable to uh to be arrested if they were to remain on site so uh that was going to be one of the new developments that would that would go that was going to be witnessed at the encampment but uh again no arrests have materialized and it was again peaceful as I mentioned those people were getting ready to go to sleep when these agitators uh showed up uh to uh to uh antagonize all of them the important thing to point out is that you know you mentioned for example Columbia University uh the New York Police Department intervened there at the request of Columbia University because it a it is a private university they had to wait for their uh their their um their request to be able to show up in this case UCLA is a public university LAPD does not have to wait for the for the uh University’s request to to show up and intervene so again the major question right now is where is the police W thanks very much do stay with us and an updated of course if we get any latest from there but we’ll continue to show you the latest of those images coming into us here at France 24 but

The pro-Palestinian demonstration that paralyzed Columbia University ended in dramatic fashion, with police carrying riot shields bursting into a building that protesters took over the previous night and making dozens of arrests. On the other side of the country, clashes broke out early Wednesday between dueling groups at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
#UCLA #Gaza #ontheground

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20 comments

  4. This is what happens when a police force is heavy handed, militarized and racist (some are trained by the IDF – imagine that!). Of course protests must be peaceful but whatever happened to the constitutional right of free speech? Or does the constitution only apply when some in power agree with the protestors?

  5. Gaza is just the beginning, as the US political class have drawn battle lines against the students, they are just asking for their own downfall and they don't even know it.

  9. This is a real world cvics lesson. In the US everyone is equal under the law. Some people are more equal then others.

  11. No police, permitting right wing militias to do the dirty work. Nothing surprising in this, they won't show up until the encampment gets serious about fighting back.

  17. Good one france 24. Not at all IDF style pro israeli kicked, punched and throwing fire crackers to students protesters, civilian, in US soil.
    This is an act of war.

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