It was said that the police sometimes used riot gear, tactical vehicles and flash-bang devices to clear tent encampments and buildings occupied by the protesters who are protesting against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The United States authorities have said that the police have arrested nearly 2,200 people in connection with the pro-Palestinian protests that have been going at campuses of universities and colleges across the country.
It was said that the police sometimes used riot gear, tactical vehicles and flash-bang devices to clear tent encampments and buildings occupied by the protesters who are protesting against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
AP News reports that the authorities said one officer accidentally discharged his gun inside a Columbia University administration building while clearing out protesters camped inside, but no one was injured.
The NYPD said that the officer’s mistake happened late Tuesday inside Hamilton Hall on the Columbia campus while he was trying to use the flashlight attached to his gun at the time and instead fired a single round that struck a frame on the wall.
Officials said that there were other officers but no students in the immediate vicinity, but it was reported that more than 100 people were taken into custody during the Columbia crackdown, which was said to be a fraction of the total arrests arising from the protests.
According to the AP News report, a tally by The Associated Press recorded at least 56 incidents of arrests at 43 different U.S. colleges or universities since April 18.
Officers on Thursday reportedly surged against a crowd of demonstrators at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where at least 200 protesters have been arrested after hundreds defied orders to leave, while some formed human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds.
Police tore apart a fortified encampment’s barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters, then pulled down canopies and tents.
At UCLA, tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across other campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century.
Meanwhile, Israel has said that the protests are antisemitic, but Israel’s critics have said Israel uses the allegations to silence opposition.
Whereas some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organisers, some of whom are Jewish, call it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.
Reacting to the protests, President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the right of students to peaceful protest but decried the disorder of recent days.
The protesters started the protests at Columbia University on April 17 with students calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, which the Gaza Health Ministry said has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The NYPD on April 18 cleared Columbia’s initial encampment and arrested roughly 100 protesters.
The protesters set up new tents and defied threats of suspension, and escalated their actions early Tuesday by occupying Hamilton Hall, an administration building that was similarly seized in 1968 by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.
It was reported that roughly 20 hours later, officers stormed the hall and police said protesters inside presented no substantial resistance.
But the NYPD said that the officer’s gun went off at 9:38 p.m., adding that about 10 minutes after police started pouring into Hamilton Hall but did not name the officer.
The confrontations at UCLA also played out over several days this week, while UCLA Chancellor Gene Block reportedly told alumni on phone on Thursday that the trouble started after a permitted pro-Israel rally was held on campus Sunday and fights broke out and “live mice” were tossed into the pro-Palestinian encampment later that day.
Block said that in the following days, administrators tried to find a peaceful solution with members of the encampment and expected things to remain stable.
He said that changed late Tuesday when counterdemonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment.
Campus administrators and police did not intervene or call for backup for hours; no one was arrested that night, but at least 15 protesters were reportedly injured.
Block said that on Wednesday, the encampment had become “much more of a bunker” and there was no other solution but to have police dismantle it.
The hours-long standoff went into Thursday morning as officers warned over loudspeakers that there would be arrests if the crowd, at the time more than 1,000 strong inside the encampment as well as outside of it, did not disperse.
Hundreds left voluntarily, while over 200 others remained and were ultimately taken into custody.
Protest encampments at other schools across the U.S. have been cleared by police, resulting in more arrests or closed voluntarily.
But University of Minnesota officials reached an agreement with protesters not to disrupt commencements, and similar compromises have been made at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago, Rutgers University in New Jersey and Brown University in Rhode Island.
Watson reported from San Diego, Keller from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Thompson from Buffalo, New York. Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Kavish Harjai, Krysta Fauria, Leslie Ambriz, John Antczak, Lisa Baumann, Jae C. Hong, Colleen Long, Karen Matthews, Sarah Brumfield, Philip Marcelo, Steve Karnowski and Gene Johnson.