Columbia protests live: Students clash at UCLA over pro-Palestine protests hours after NYPD arrest dozens

A UCLA professor has accused university security of “simply watching” as pro-Israel demonstrators attacked the pro-Palestine encampment and students.

“What is happening at UCLA right now is strategy that I recognize from Turkey. The police outsourcing violence to fascist mobs,” said Salih Can Aciksoz, an assistant professor of anthropology.

UCLA authorities have condemned “horrific acts of violence” on campus on Wednesday.

“Horrific acts of violence occurred at the encampment tonight, and we immediately called law enforcement for mutual aid support,” said vice-chancellor Mary Osako.

The Independent’s Richard Hall reports from the scene that arrests began shortly after 9pm.

Detained protesters were led away from the campus down Amsterdam Avenue to waiting police buses, some were carried.

Police officers are “responding immediately” to a request from UCLA chancellor Gene Block for support on campus, where violence has broken out between pro-Palestine protesters and counter-demonstrators.

Violent clashes have erupted on the University of California campus in Los Angeles between pro-Palestinian protesters and a group of counter-demonstrators, footage run by US broadcasters showed.

Read the full statement, released by Columbia University via a spokesperson, after NYPD officers entered its campus to engage with the demonstrators:

A little after 9 p.m. this evening, the NYPD arrived on campus at the University’s request. This decision was made to restore safety and order to our community.

We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions. After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice.

Columbia public safety personnel were forced out of the building, and a member of our facilities team was threatened. We will not risk the safety of our community or the potential for further escalation.

The leadership team, including the Board of Trustees, met throughout the night and into the early morning, consulting with security experts and law enforcement to determine the best plan to protect our students and the entire Columbia community. We made the decision, early in the morning, that this was a law enforcement matter, and that the NYPD were best positioned to determine and execute an appropriate response.

We believe that the group that broke into and occupied the building is led by individuals who are not affiliated with the University. Sadly, this dangerous decision followed more than a week of what had been productive discussions with representatives of the West Lawn encampment.

We severely curtailed the number of people on Morningside campus starting Tuesday morning. Over the course of the day, we updated our community on access to campus buildings, and will continue to do so through the next few days.

The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing. We have made it clear that the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law.

Early Tuesday, protesters chose to escalate to an alarming and untenable situation – including by vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, blockading entrances, and forcing our facilities and public safety workers out – and we are responding appropriately as we have long made clear we would. The safety of our community, especially our students, remains our top priority.

College students taking up space and making demands for change. University administrators facing pressure to get things back under control. Police brought in to make arrests. At other schools: students taking note, and sometimes taking action.

The pro-Palestinian demonstration and subsequent arrests at Columbia that have set off similar protests at campuses nationwide these days and even internationally aren’t new ground for students at the Ivy League school. They’re the latest in a Columbia tradition that dates back more than five decades — one that also helped provide inspiration for the anti-apartheid protest of the 1980s, the Iraq war protests, and more.

“There are straight-out calls for the genocide of Jews,” said attorney Jay Edelson on NewsNation’s On Balance.

Read more from Michelle Del Rey:

“The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach,” John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman, said on Tuesday.

His comments come less than a week after the Biden administration signed a bill to send $26.4 billion to Israel to support its ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Over 100 Columbia students were arrested two weeks ago during peaceful protests at the campus.