Demonstrators have gathered in at the very least 30 US universities since final month, usually erecting tent encampments to protest the hovering loss of life toll within the Gaza Strip.
However the sight of helmeted officers at two of America’s most prestigious universities left some college students dismayed.
“I do not assume we should always have a heavy police drive on campus,” UCLA pupil Mark Torre, 22, instructed AFP as he surveyed the scene from behind metallic obstacles.
“However an increasing number of, daily, I believe it is a vital evil, to at the very least hold security on campus.”
At Columbia and on the Metropolis College of New York, the place police cleared out demonstrators in a single day, some college students decried the police conduct.
“We have been assaulted, brutally arrested. And I used to be held for as much as six hours earlier than being launched, fairly banged up, obtained stomped on, obtained minimize up,” one CUNY pupil who gave his title solely as Jose instructed AFP.
A medical pupil providing therapy to detainees as they have been launched described a litany of accidents.
“We have seen issues like extreme head traumas, concussions, somebody was knocked unconscious within the encampment by police, somebody was thrown down the steps,” mentioned the coed, who gave her title as Isabel.
About 300 arrests have been made at Columbia and CUNY, Police Commissioner Edward Caban mentioned.
Mayor Eric Adams blamed “outdoors agitators” for ratcheting up tensions. Columbia college students have denied outsiders have been concerned.
College president Minouche Shafik, who has come underneath fireplace over her resolution to name in police, mentioned the flip of occasions “stuffed me with deep disappointment.”
“I’m sorry we reached this level,” she mentioned in a press release.
