Live Updates on Campus Protests, May 1

Live Updates on Campus Protests, May 1 Doug Lederman Wed, 05/01/2024 - 08:05 AM After Police Clear Hamilton Hall, a Quiet Morning at Columbia About 230 students were arrested at Columbia University on Tuesday night as dozens of officers from the New York Police Department breached Hamilton Hall, where pro-Palestinian protesters had barricaded themselves nearly 24 hours before. First, police broke up lines of demonstrators linked arm-in-arm surrounding the building. Then they went in after the occupiers inside. Dressed in riot gear and bearing plastic zip tie handcuffs on their belt, the officers swept the building, entering first through a second-story window and side entrance before storming through the front doors. Steadily, the silhouettes of protesters began to disappear from Hamilton Hall’s windows, where they had been seen waving Palestinian flags throughout the day and into the night. Many were funneled into law enforcement vehicles and caravanned away from campus. Dozens of additional arrests were also made just a few blocks uptown at the nearby City College of New York, where protesters tried—and failed—to take over an administrative building. In all, police estimate they arrested about 300 protesters from both Manhattan campuses. Now at Columbia, both Hamilton Hall and the campus lawn, which formerly hosted a sea of encampment tents, are empty. The Morningside Heights campus continues to remain on lockdown, accessible only to students who live in on-campus dorms and employees who provide essential services. Just last Friday Columbia President Minouche Shafik said it would be counterproductive to bring police back to campus, given that their presence last week only stoked more protests, both at Columbia and on campuses around the nation. But she seemed to reverse her stance entirely Tuesday night, writing a letter to the NYPD in which she called for city police to remain on campus until after the May 15 graduation ceremony. When asked whether police would meet Shafik’s request, a law enforcement official told CNN the department is still determining how long and in what capacity officers will stay. —Jessica Blake, 10 a.m. *** At UCLA, Scuffles Turn Into Brawl What had been mostly minor scuffles between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles, erupted into an all-out violent clash Tuesday night. Videos show masked individuals running up to the barricaded pro-Palestinian encampment just outside Powell Library a little before 11 p.m. and shooting fireworks at the peaceful demonstrators. Local media reported that pipes, wooden planks, tasers and pepper spray were all deployed as the confrontation raged on one of the university’s main quads. But unlike at many other protest sites across the country, law enforcement officers were notably absent. Campus police along with medical personnel showed up briefly before retreating, according to KTLA5. A representative of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said in a post on X that “Law enforcement leaders are in contact regarding the violence at UCLA this evening, and resources have been mobilized.” According to The Los Angeles Times, officers in riot gear arrived at about 1:40 a.m. Even then, the police did not immediately break up the clashes at the encampment. It wasn’t until about 3 a.m. that officers began to push the remaining counter-protesters out of the quad area. They told people to leave or face arrest. The number of arrests and injuries from the brawl remain unclear. “Horrific acts of violence occurred at the encampment tonight, and we immediately called law enforcement for mutual aid support,” UCLA vice chancellor Mary Osako said in a statement. “The fire department and medical personnel are on the scene. We are sickened by this senseless violence and it must end.” The night’s events unfolded shortly after UC President Michael Drake released a statement Tuesday evening supporting the university’s decision to label the encampment unlawful, adding that “when it threatens the safety of students, or anyone else, we must act.” —Jessica Blake, 9:15 a.m. *** Outside Agitators at UT-Austin The University of Texas at Austin said late Tuesday that most of the people arrested after a campus protest on Monday “had no affiliation” with the university and that officers had confiscated guns, rocks and “steel-enforced wood planks. “These numbers validate our concern that much of the disruption on campus over the past week has been orchestrated by people from outside the University, including groups with ties to escalating protests at other universities around the country,” the university’s statement said. Texas officials said that 45 of the 79 people arrested Monday were unaffiliated with the university. They also said that employees had been assaulted and threatened and police officers had been “headbutted and hit with horse excrement.” “This is calculated, intentional and, we believe, orchestrated and led by those outside our university community,” the statement said. —Doug Lederman, 8:19 a.m. More Updates on Campus Protests Ad / Content Keywords administrators studentaffairs SEO Headline (Limit to 60 characters) Live Updates on Campus Protests, May 1 Primary Section/Subsection Free Speech Secondary Sections/Subsections Safety Byline(s) IHE Staff

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