Violence, chaos erupts on campuses as protesters and counter-protesters clash over war in Gaza
CTV
A brawl erupted at UCLA after pro-Israel protesters tried to remove barricades at a pro-Palestinian encampment, and activists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison clashed with police officers who destroyed their tents.
A brawl erupted at UCLA after pro-Israel protesters tried to remove barricades at a pro-Palestinian encampment, and activists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison clashed with police officers who destroyed their tents, in a day of escalating violence on some college campuses over the war in Gaza.
The chaotic scenes unfolded Wednesday after police burst into a building occupied by anti-war protesters at Columbia University on Tuesday night, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.
After a couple of hours of scuffles between dueling demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, police wearing helmets and face shields separated the groups and restored calm. Later Wednesday, pro-Palestinian protesters rebuilt a barricade around their encampment. There were no counter-protesters in sight and law enforcement officers were deployed throughout the campus.
In Madison on Wednesday, police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters, resulting in a scrum. Four officers were injured, including a state trooper who was hit in the head with a skateboard, according to University of Wisconsin police spokesperson Marc Lovicott.
Within hours, protesters had erected more tents at the UW campus.
More than 30 people were arrested, most of them released without charges, but four were charged with battering law enforcement, police said.
Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that 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.
