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More than 200 arrested as police dismantle UCLA pro-Palestinian camp [1]
['Matthew Ormseth Is A Reporter For The Los Angeles Times. Before Joining The Times In', 'He Covered City News', 'State Politics At The Hartford Courant.', 'Connor Sheets Is An Investigative', 'Enterprise Reporter At The Los Angeles Times.', 'Ruben Vives Is A General Assignment Reporter For The Los Angeles Times. A Native Of Guatemala', 'He Got His Start In Journalism Writing For The Times', 'Homicide Report In He Helped Uncover The Financial Corruption In The City Of Bell That Led To Criminal Charges Against Eight City Officials. The Investigative Series Won The Pulitzer Prize For Public Service', 'Other Prestigious Awards.', 'Melissa Gomez Is An Enterprise Reporter On The State Team Who Joined The Los Angeles Times In She Reports On A Range Of News']
Date: 2024-05-01
Police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters after an order to disperse was given at UCLA early Thursday.
Police moved into the pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA on Thursday morning, dismantling many of the tents, pushing out most of the protesters and arresting more than 200 people.
The operation caps two days of upheaval that began when UCLA declared the camp “unlawful” and continued when a mob attacked the camp Tuesday night, with police taking hours to stop the violence.
On Thursday morning, officers wearing body armor, helmets and face shields methodically pulled apart the barricade as protesters tried to hold together the assemblage of plywood and metal fencing. Police launched flares that arced over the encampment, igniting with piercing blasts, and smoke filled the air from fire extinguishers that demonstrators sprayed at police. At least one officer is seen on video shooting rubber bullets into the crowd.
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Officers watched the scene from the high windows of Royce Hall, infuriating protesters who shone lights in their eyes and challenged them to come down.
A line of police officers wearing body armor, helmets and face shields clash with pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles)
Officers were able to move protesters out of Royce Hall after a series of tense scuffles. Some protesters appeared to leave the scene on their own, but many were arrested. Los Angeles Police Department officials said 209 people were taken into custody. Many were booked on suspicion of failing to disperse, a misdemeanor, a law enforcement source told The Times.
It is not clear how many of those arrested are UCLA students.
There were several fronts of the overnight operation, with police using flash-bang type devices that echoed across campus and dismantling tents.
A man was struck in the chest with a rubber bullet after California Highway Patrol officers told protesters to stop throwing boards and other objects at them. It is not clear whether the man was throwing anything or how many others were injured.
President Biden on Thursday addressed the ongoing protests on college campuses, saying that while he understands Americans have strong feelings, “it doesn’t mean that anything goes.”
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“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations — none of this is peaceful protest,” Biden said. “Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education.”
He reiterated that discrimination should never be tolerated.
“There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans. It’s simply wrong,” he said.
UCLA has moved all classes online for the rest of the week in the wake of the police activity on campus.
Earlier in the morning, about 15 LAPD officers entered through a makeshift barricade near the school’s Tongva steps around 1:30 a.m. before protesters pushed them back, according to a UCLA student who witnessed the incident.
The student, who declined to be named, said the demonstrators who remained early Thursday morning in the encampment were prepared to be arrested.
“The people who have been here consistently are sleep-deprived, but people here are ready to defend the camp,” she said.
UCLA police repeatedly announced over loudspeakers that protesters should clear the area “immediately” and that those who failed to do so would be subject to arrest.
In recent weeks, UCLA, like other universities across the country, has emerged as a hotbed of pro-Palestinian activism.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters pray in front of Royce Hall on the UCLA campus Wednesday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Students, faculty and staff have erected makeshift camps and demanded an end to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip and that their universities divest from companies that sell weapons or services to Israel.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators watch police break through a fence to their tent on the UCLA campus Thursday early in the morning. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Police at one of the buildings on the UCLA campus on Thursday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Citing “sufficient confusion” surrounding the events, UC President Michael V. Drake said he was ordering an independent review of the university’s actions and the response by law enforcement.
As police began arriving in significant numbers early Wednesday evening, students lined up arm in arm in an effort to prevent law enforcement from reaching the encampment.
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Down the hill from the tents, more than two dozen vehicles from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department lined up. Officers in riot gear faced the students.
UCLA protesters gather on campus Wednesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
“They won’t arrest you before giving a dispersal order,” one student called out to the crowd.
“If you don’t want to be arrested, don’t stand in the front,” another student organizer shouted.
UCLA campus police officers and L.A. County sheriff’s deputies stand guard during the campus protest at UCLA. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
What followed was hours of stalemate, with hundreds of other protesters showing up and packing the courtyard stairs between the tent encampment and most of the police officers.
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A small number of pro-Israel activists showed up carrying a large flag, but they were vastly outnumbered and there was no violence.
Behind the plywood barricades of the encampment, the mood was anxious but not panicked. People were handing out respirators, masks and buckets to fill with water if needed to flush tear gas from eyes.
A woman handing out cookies, grapes and granola bars to protesters said, “It’s the revolution. You gotta eat.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israel activists clash at an encampment at UCLA early Wednesday morning. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times )
Another, who apparently wanted to end genocide without imperiling her future employment prospects, said she was “trying to get arrested but not a felony.”
Meanwhile, in the road across from the encampment, dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters flowed into the driving lanes in front of Dickson Plaza chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
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Others held a sign apparently expanding the goals of the protest: “From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls got to go.”
Matt Barreto, a professor of Chicano studies and political science, stood under a blue-and-gold banner that read “UCLA Faculty and Staff, We Stand with Our Students.”
Barreto said he was one of about 30 faculty and staff members who were in the encampment and willing to be arrested alongside students.
“Our job is to stand up for their 1st Amendment rights, their rights on their own campus. We’re not trying to speak for the students,” he said. “We’re just here to support them and make sure no harm comes to them, especially after last night.
“We’re going to stand here all night holding this banner,” he added.
The faculty’s decision to stay in the encampment comes hours after it circulated a letter to Chancellor Gene Block with about 360 signatures demanding no police action or disciplinary action be taken against students.
Times staff photographer Jason Armond contributed to this report.
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[1] Url:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-01/la-me-ucla-camp-police
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