The day before yesterday, we had just finished saying "Columbia University Closes, Harvard Closes, Conflict Escalates and Spreads Across the United States, Out of Control...", today, it was completely chaotic.
Campus rage swept across the United States, and protests that had only been verbal clashes in the past days have now turned into armed confrontations, with riot police stationed on campuses, and even tear gas and rubber bullets fired by the police, who pinned protesters to the ground and handcuffed them.
As of press time, police intervention on multiple campuses across the United States has resulted in more than 400 arrests.
Tear gas was fired wildly, and American campuses became battlefields
On the Texas campus, riot police are stationed
Just now, Georgia police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters at Emory University.
After hearing the gunshots, the demonstrators fled to save their lives.
The scene was chaotic.
The police arrested the demonstrators by force, including with stun guns.
Journalists were violently arrested for reporting
A netizen at the scene of the Texas University strike, @chris_kuhlman00, said he saw a camera from Fox 7 Austin being thrown to the ground by police.
Huffington Post associate editor Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) posted a video of a photographer being detained, identifying himself as Carlos of the local Fox TV station.
Carlos said, "The police pushed me, they said I hit an officer, but I didn't"
Lewis asked, "Have you ever encountered anything like this?"
Carlos replied, "No." This never happened to me. I'm just reporting [this].
Austin KVUE reporter Tony Plohetski said, "In the 24 years I've been reporting in Austin, I can't recall a single journalist who has been arrested for doing his duty. ”
Riots at universities across the United States, police arrest people by force
The protests against the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which spread across campuses across the United States, began last week.
Harvard, Yale and other universities in the United States have erupted one after another to protest in support of Palestine, among which Columbia University is the most intense. Demonstrators set up camp on campus, demanded that the university divest from businesses that profit from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and cut academic ties with Israeli organizations, among other things. However, Columbia refused the protesters' request and called in the police to clear the protests, arresting hundreds of protesters who shouted slogans.
The move caused dissatisfaction, and well-known universities such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Stanford, and the University of California, Berkeley, came out in solidarity.
In the past two days, the demonstrations quickly escalated into violent clashes, and the police intervened.
Police involvement on campus
- Columbia University in Manhattan: New York City police arrested 108 demonstrators on April 18. Administrators set a deadline for the protesters to dismantle the camp and disband at midnight on Friday.
- Emory University Atlanta: Dozens of protesters set up tents on campus lawns on Thursday. The Emory Police Department ordered the group to leave and contacted Atlanta Police and the Georgia State Patrol for help.
- USCLA: Los Angeles police ordered demonstrators to disperse and arrested 93 people on Wednesday after they set up camp.
- Emerson College, Boston: Demonstrators set up tents on Sunday night. On Wednesday night, Boston police arrested 108 people and cleared the camp.
- Princeton University, New Jersey: Demonstrators began pitching tents on Wednesday. On Thursday, university officials said they had repeatedly warned protesters to clear the area and arrested two graduate students.
- California State Polytechnic State at Humboldt: Dozens of protesters occupied an academic and administrative building Wednesday morning, university officials said. The campus on Northern California's Pacific Coast has been closed since Monday after police tried to drive protesters out of the building, but it later turned violent, leading to the arrest of three people.
- University of Minnesota Twin Cities: Nine people detained after setting up camp.
- Ohio State University Columbus: Two demonstrators were arrested Tuesday and charged with trespassing during a campus demonstration, according to university officials. Officials said the protests had now dispersed. On Thursday morning, protest organizers posted on social media that they had formed camp.
- Washington University in St. Louis: Police cleared protests and encampments on campus Wednesday.
- New York University Manhattan: The NYPD arrested dozens of people Monday night after demonstrators occupied campus square.
- Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut: Hundreds of people have come out in protest since last week. On Monday, police arrested more than 40 people.
At the University of Texas at San Antonio, a young man draped in a Palestinian flag said, "You have to care about Palestine because people are dying." ”
The crowd then chanted, "What do we want?" and "Ceasefire!"
Other schools where protesters set up camps
- Harvard University
- Brown University
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Cornell University
- Florida State University
- City College of New York
- George Washington University
- Northwestern University
- Michigan State University
- University of Rochester
- Tufts University
- University of Delaware at Newark
- School of Science and Technology, Asa Province
- The New School in New York
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Rice University, Houston
- University of Pittsburgh
Where other protests took place
- University of Florida, Gainesville
- University of Maryland, College Park
- American University of Washington
- University of Texas at Dallas
- University of Texas at San Antonio
- University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
- University of Texas at Arlington
- Southern Maine University, Portland
At present, anti-war demonstrations continue to heat up at many universities across the United States, and in addition to closing the campus, some have even canceled the graduation ceremonies of the class of 2024.
By the time of writing, more than 400 people had been arrested in the national university riots.