The law and freedom of speech ‘must be upheld’: «peaceful protests are protected in America, vandalism and violent protests are not” he claims Joe Biden breaking the silence on pro-Gaza protests on American campuses. «The right to protest does not mean the right to chaos», he underlined. The United States “is not an authoritarian country that silences people.”
According to theApthey would be at least 2,000 people have been arrested since the protests begancalculating i two hundred arrested after the eviction of the University of California. The latter would be transported by bus to a local prison. The reporters of Cnn on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles reported that police officers fired what appeared to be rubber bullets at pro-Palestine protesters. The agents they broke down the barricades, dismantled the tents and took the demonstrators away in handcuffs on several busesreports the New York Times. Also there California Highway Patrol confirmed that dozens and dozens of people were arrested in the police action which lasted about two hours: the police cleared out the camp, “littered with piles of shattered wood, collapsed tents and destroyed furniture”.
Los Angeles, new pro-Gaza protests: clashes on the University of California campus
Clearance also at Portland State University, whose library has been occupied since last Monday. Before the police action began, the university authorities sent a notice to all students stating that «Millar Library is closed, no one is allowed to enter, anyone remaining inside is in violation of Private property”. The police explained that the decision to evacuate was taken, in collaboration with the university’s leaders, after “numerous attempts to start a dialogue with the occupiers” had no positive outcome.
Meanwhile, the New York police say that about half of the 282 people arrested at Columbia University and at the City College of New York were not among those enrolled at the two universities.
And the Columbia University faculty association presented a motion to vote of no confidence in President Minouche Shafik, criticizing the actions with which she responded to the pro-Gaza protests at the university which «culminated with the horrific police attack against our students, a shame that the whole world could see.” The document presented by the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors states that «a vote of no confidence is the only way to rebuild our devastated community and re-establish the basic values of the University, of freedom of expression, right to assemble peacefully and shared management”.
The police are thus continuing their evictions and arrests of students involved in the protests against the war in Gaza which have been engulfing around thirty American universities for weeks. In recent days the police have dismantled camps set up by demonstrators inUniversity of Texas and to Fordham University of New York, arresting dozens of people, while the situation remains tense at Columbia University, another Big Apple university affected by vehement student demonstrations.
Wednesday afternoon at Massachusetts Institute of Technology some students blocked an avenue near the center of the Cambridge campus. Dozens of police cars then patrolled the University of California, Los Angeles, where nighttime clashes occurred after an assault by counter-protesters on a tent city of pro-Palestinian students, on which the attackers allegedly used pepper spray.
Los Angeles, new pro-Gaza protests: clashes on the University of California campus
Arrests were also made in Wisconsin, in Madison, while in Arizona the police announced that they had put an end to an “illegal gathering” with “irritating chemical munitions”. Meanwhile, the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, said the law enforcement raid on Columbia University was “a beautiful thing to see” and called the protesters “raving lunatics and Hamas sympathizers.” Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Wisconsin praising police officers for the arrests and adding that New York was “under siege” last night. “College campuses in the United States are tainted by hatred and anti-Semitism fueled by ignorance and arrogance,” he said. Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a video message -. We see important academic institutions, rich in history, culture and education, that are tainted by hatred and anti-Semitism, sentiments driven by misinformation and moral failures.”