Police begin removing barricades at encampment at UCLA as protests continue on campuses
(TND) — Police have started removing barricades at demonstrators’ encampment on the campus of UCLA after an hourslong standoff.
Law enforcement began clearing the encampment after hours threatening to arrest people who did not disperse over loud speakers. There were hundreds of people gathered on UCLA's campus in the encampment and the surrounding area in support of it.
The sound of flash bangs could be heard as police moved in. Officers began ripping down the makeshift barricades protesters built with plywood, pallets, dumpsters and other materials used in an effort to keep police out. Demonstrators had rebuilt the barriers around their tents on Wednesday afternoon while state and campus police watched.
Tensions at UCLA were heightened after counter-protesters and demonstrators in the encampment got into physical altercations Wednesday after opposing groups of protesters pushed, kicked, and hit one another with sticks. Classes were canceled on Wednesday as a result of the violence.
Encampments have been started on college campuses across the country as protesters push schools to "divest from Israel" and express outrage with the death toll of civilians in Gaza as a result of Israel's war with Hamas. Police and school administrators have been under pressure to clear the encampments that have canceled classes at multiple schools and stretched over several days.
In Washington, protests on the campus of George Washington University were stretching into an eighth straight day as tensions are rising between demonstrators and police. Protesters expressed their determination to stay until their demands are addressed when the city's Metropolitan Police Department officers came to remove barriers near the park site just before 5 a.m. and startled them.
Protesters came out of their tents and began chanting "We want justice, you say how, cops off this campus now" and "End the occupation now," starting an impromptu rally and walking officers out of the yard.
The protests at GW have drawn congressional attention from House Republicans, who have called on city leaders and police to break it up and threatened legislative action forcing their hand.
"If the District of Columbia and MPD refuse to exercise their authority to assist GWU in securing the safety of its students and faculty, Congress will be obliged to exercise its legislative powers to do so," lawmakers wrote in a letter.
No arrests have been made at GW, but hundreds of students and other demonstrators have been detained at other schools as police and administrators grapple with how to handle the protests.
On the West Coast, classes at Portland State University are set to resume on Thursday despite an ongoing occupation of the campus library by protesters. School president Ann Cudd said in a news release that it was “critically important to return to the university’s mission of educating our students.”
The protesters took over the library on Monday and appeared to be settling in for another night. People dropped off supplies like food, shampoo and bedding.
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