An iron fist once morest pro-Palestinian demonstrations and for the ceasefire in Gaza in American universities, the scene of two thousand arrests to restore order. The most dramatic episode in police interventions occurred at the University of California in Los Angeles: officers in riot gear cleared out a vast protest camp at dawn, knocking down makeshift barricades and handcuffing over 130 demonstrators.
University leaders called for intervention following a recent escalation of divisions and tensions, culminating in an attack on the tent city by 200 pro-Israel counter-protesters. In the previous hours, over 300 arrests had taken place in Manhattan between Columbia University, where the occupied building Hamilton Hall, City College and Fordham was evacuated. Crackdowns also occurred in Dartmouth in New Hampshire, with 90 arrests, at the University of Texas in Dallas and at Tulane in New Orleans.
The crisis has forcefully entered the White House. President Joe Biden, in his first speech on the demonstrations, denounced the unrest on campuses but sought to show calm leadership, rejecting Republican proposals to mobilize the National Guard to provide security. «Two fundamental principles are being put to the test – he said – The right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, to have one’s voice heard. And the principle of legality. Both must be enforced.” Americans “have the right to protest, not to create chaos.”
The president added that all forms of anti-Semitism and hatred must be banned. Biden, in the climate of the electoral campaign, is under pressure: the Democratic Convention will be in August in Chicago, where in 1968 it was shaken by riots once morest the Vietnam War.
Protests currently remain widespread, in private and public institutions from one coast to the other of the country and not just in large cities. At Portland State University in Oregon, officers raided a student-owned library. At Indiana University, students and teachers are in open rebellion once morest leaders defined as inept, following they canceled authorizations for protests. The National Association of University Professors has defended peaceful protests by students, with some professors arrested alongside them and denouncing police excesses.
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2024-05-04 02:32:39
