UCLA pro-Palestine protestors brace for clashes with cops for the second night with LAPD officers dressed in riot gear flooding the campus – as colleges across the nation crack down on campus encampments

Pro-Palestine protestors fortified their barricades and prepared for clashes as hundreds of LAPD flooded the UCLA campus Wednesday night, the second night in a row encampments on the California campus turned physical. 

It comes as police are cracking down on encampments at campuses across America.  

There were arrests made on campuses such as Ivy League’s Dartmouth in Rhode Island, the University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. At Wisconsin, more than 34 were arrested and some cops were hurt in clashes. 

New York City continued to see it’s share of protests as well, as police broke up protests at Fordham a day after ending encampments at Columbia and the City College of New York. Officers arrested at least 15 Fordham protesters Wednesday. 

Across the country at UCLA, a large crowd of students, alumni and neighbors gathered on campus steps outside the barricaded area of tents, sitting as they listened and applauded various speakers and joined in pro-Palestinian chants. 

As day turned to night, LAPD officers dressed in riot gear filled the campus. Videos shared on social media showed students fortifying their barricades as they prepared for confrontations with police. Some chanted ‘shame on you!’ and ‘LAPD KKK!’  

Overheard television cameras at UCLA showed students in the barricaded area passing out goggles and helmets, as well as setting up medical aid stations.

A small group of students holding signs and wearing T-shirts in support of Israel and Jewish people gathered nearby.

The law enforcement presence and continued warnings stood in contrast to the scene that unfolded the night before, when counter-demonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones, releasing pepper spray and tearing down barriers. 

Fighting continued for several hours before police stepped in, and no one was arrested. 

At least 15 protesters suffered injuries, and the tepid response by authorities drew criticism from political leaders as well as Muslim students and advocacy groups.

Ray Wiliani, who lives nearby, said he came to UCLA on Wednesday evening to support the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

‘We need to take a stand for it,’ he said. ‘Enough is enough.’

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement that ‘a group of instigators’ perpetrated the previous night’s attack, but he did not provide details about the crowd or why the administration and school police did not act sooner.

‘However one feels about the encampment, this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable,’ he said. ‘It has shaken our campus to its core.’

Block promised a review of the night’s events after California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Los Angeles mayor denounced the delays.

‘The community needs to feel the police are protecting them, not enabling others to harm them,’ Rebecca Husaini, chief of staff for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said in a news conference on the Los Angeles campus later Wednesday, where some Muslim students detailed the overnight events.

Speakers disputed the university´s account that 15 people were injured and one hospitalized, saying the number of people taken to the hospital was higher. 

One student described needing to go to the hospital after being hit in the head by an object wielded by counter-protesters.

Several students who spoke during the news conference said they had to rely on each other, not the police, for support as they were attacked, and that many in the pro-Palestinian encampment remained peaceful and did not engage with counter-protesters. 

UCLA canceled classes Wednesday.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century. 

The ensuing police crackdowns echoed actions decades ago against a much larger protest movement protesting the Vietnam War.

In Madison, a scrum broke out early Wednesday after police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters. 

Four officers were injured, including a state trooper who was hit in the head with a skateboard, authorities said. Four were charged with battering law enforcement.

This is all playing out in an election year in the U.S., raising questions about whether young voters – who are critical for Democrats – will back President Joe Biden’s reelection effort, given his staunch support of Israel.

In rare instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

At Brown University in Rhode Island, administrators agreed to consider a vote to divest from Israel in October – apparently the first U.S. college to agree to such a demand.

The nationwide campus demonstrations began at Columbia on April 17 to protest Israel´s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. 

Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there.

Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests antisemitic, while Israel´s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. 

Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.

Late Tuesday, New York City police officers entered Columbia’s campus and cleared an encampment, along with Hamilton Hall, where a stream of officers used a ladder to climb through a second-floor window, and police said protesters inside presented no substantial resistance.

The demonstrators had seized the Ivy League school building about 20 hours earlier, ramping up their presence on the campus from a tent encampment that had been there for nearly two weeks.

They encountered police clearing tents early on, as well as more than 100 arrests and threats of suspension unless they abandoned the encampment Monday. Instead, protesters took over Hamilton Hall early Tuesday.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams blamed ‘outside agitators’ on Wednesday for leading the demonstrations and repeatedly cited the presence of a woman on Columbia´s campus whose husband Adams said had been ‘convicted for terrorism.’ 

The woman, Nahla Al-Arian, wasn´t on Columbia´s campus this week and isn´t among the protesters who were arrested.