LOS ANGELES – Police began clearing protesters at New York University on Friday, the latest development in weeks of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country that have resulted in nearly 2,200 arrests.
Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry posted on X that NYU requested police assistance “to disperse the illegal encampment on their property.” Daughtry said police “are on scene.” Details about possible arrests were not immediately available. A message seeking comment was sent to an NYU spokesperson.
Earlier this week, more than 100 people were detained during a crackdown at Columbia University, where protests and camps began over the Israel-Hamas war.
A police officer accidentally fired his gun inside Columbia’s Hamilton Hall while clearing protesters camped there on Tuesday, authorities said. No one was injured, the NYPD said Thursday. He was trying to use the flashlight attached to his gun at the time and instead fired a single shot that hit a frame on the wall.
There were other officers but no students in the immediate area, authorities said. Body camera footage shows when the officer’s gun fired, but the district attorney’s office is conducting a review, standard practice.
An Associated Press tally recorded at least 56 incidents of arrests at 43 different U.S. colleges or universities since April 18. The numbers are based on AP reports and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.
On Thursday morning, police officers moved into a crowd of protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles, taking at least 200 protesters into custody after hundreds defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs. to disperse the crowd. Police destroyed a fortified camp’s plywood barricade, pallets, metal fences and trash cans, then tore down awnings and tents.
As at UCLA, camps of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that say they support the war in Gaza have spread to other campuses across the country, in a student movement unlike any other this century. .
Israel has called the protests anti-Semitic, while Israel’s critics say the country uses such allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters were caught on camera making anti-Semitic comments or violent threats, the protest organizers – some of whom are Jewish – consider it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.
President Joe Biden on Thursday defended students’ right to peaceful protest, but lamented the disorder of recent days.
The demonstrations began in Columbia, on April 17, with students calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local Ministry of Health. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, on October 7 and took around 250 hostages in an attack in southern Israel.
On April 18, the NYPD cleared the initial Columbia encampment. Protesters set up new tents and defied threats of suspension, and intensified their actions on Tuesday morning, occupying Hamilton Hall, an administrative building that was also occupied in 1968 by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.
About 20 hours later, police raided the salon. Video showed officers with armbands and riot shields walking past a second-story window. Police said protesters inside did not put up substantial resistance.
The officer’s gun fired at 9:38 p.m., the NYPD said, about 10 minutes after police began storming Hamilton Hall. The department has not released the name of the officer, whose actions were first reported by news outlet The City on Thursday.
The clashes at UCLA also lasted several days this week. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block told alumni in a call Thursday afternoon that the trouble began after a permitted pro-Israel rally was held on campus Sunday and fights broke out and “live rats” were thrown. at the pro-Palestine camp later that day.
Over the next few days, administrators tried to find a peaceful solution with camp members and hoped things would remain stable, Block said.
That changed on Tuesday night, he said, when counterprotesters attacked the pro-Palestinian camp. Campus administrators and police did not intervene or call for backup for hours. No one was arrested that night, but at least 15 protesters were injured. The late response drew criticism from political leaders including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and officials promised an independent review.
By Wednesday, the camp had become “much more like a bunker” and there was no other solution than to have police dismantle it, Block said.
The hour-long standoff began Thursday morning when officers warned over loudspeakers that arrests would be made if the crowd — at the time, more than 1,000 people inside and outside the camp — did not disperse. Hundreds left voluntarily, while another 200 remained and were eventually taken into custody.
Meanwhile, protest camps at other schools in the US have been evacuated by police – resulting in more arrests – or voluntarily closed. But officials at the University of Minnesota reached an agreement with protesters not to disrupt graduations, and similar commitments were made at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago, Rutgers University in New Jersey and Brown University in Rhode Island. . Others have taken steps to hire extra security.
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Watson reported from San Diego, Keller from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Thompson from Buffalo, New York. Associated Press journalists from around the country contributed to this report, including Kavish Harjai, Krysta Fauria, Leslie Ambriz, John Antczak, Lisa Baumann, Jae C. Hong, Colleen Long, Karen Matthews, Sarah Brumfield, Philip Marcelo, Steve Karnowski and Gene Johnson.
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