Clashes Reported Between Police, Students as Campus Protests Continue
(NEWSnet/AP) — Police arrested student protesters at the University of Southern California, hours after police at University of Texas at Austin detained dozens in the latest clashes between law enforcement and college students.
The scenes at both universities Wednesday were among the latest developments in a wave of student protests in the past week over issues relating to the Israel-Hamas war.
[Earlier Report: Police Confront Students in Texas, California, as Campus Protests Expand]
The student demands vary by campus, and so has the activity and university response.
While student demonstrations have taken place on campuses since the start of the war last fall, the Columbia University situation one week ago was the spark for a more tense atmosphere. More than 100 protesters were arrested at Columbia after police tried to clear an encampment.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik set on Tuesday a midnight deadline to reach an agreement on clearing the encampment, but the school extended negotiations, saying it would continue talks with protesters for another 48 hours.
On a visit to campus Wednesday, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called on Shafik to resign “if she cannot bring order to this chaos.”
“If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard,” he said.
On Wednesday evening, a Columbia spokesperson said rumors that the university had threatened to bring in the National Guard were unfounded. “Our focus is to restore order, and if we can get there through dialogue, we will,” said Ben Chang, Columbia’s vice president for communications.
Here are some of the latest reports from across the country:
California State Polytechnic University
Students in Humboldt were barricaded inside a building for a third day, and the school shut down campus through the weekend and made classes virtual.
University of Southern California
Tensions rose between police and protesters at USC early Wednesday. But by the evening, a few dozen demonstrators standing in a circle with locked arms were detained one by one without incident.
Police officers encircled the dwindling group, which sat in defiance of an earlier warning to disperse or be arrested. Beyond the police line, hundreds of onlookers watched as helicopters buzzed overhead. The school closed the campus.
University of Minnesota
A few dozen students rallied a day after nine protesters were arrested when police took down an encampment in front of the library. U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose daughter was among the demonstrators arrested at Columbia last week, attended a protest later in the day.
A group of more than 80 professors and assistant professors signed a letter Wednesday calling on the university’s president and other administrators to drop any charges and to allow future encampments without what they described as police retaliation.
They wrote that they were “horrified that the administration would permit such a clear violation of our students’ rights to freely speak out against genocide and ongoing occupation of Palestine.”
University of Texas at Austin
Hundreds of local and state police — including some on horseback and holding batons — pushed into protesters, at one point sending some tumbling into the street. Officers made 34 arrests at the behest of the university and Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
A photographer covering the demonstration for Fox 7 Austin was in the push-and-pull when an officer yanked him backward to the ground, video shows. The station confirmed that the photographer was arrested. A longtime Texas journalist was knocked down in the mayhem and could be seen bleeding before police helped him to emergency medical staff.
Police left after hours of efforts to control the crowd, and about 300 demonstrators moved back in to sit on the grass and chant under the school’s iconic clock tower.
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