NEW YORK: Professional-Palestinian protests which have rocked US campuses for weeks have been extra muted Friday (Could 3) after a sequence of clashes with police, mass arrests and a stern White Home directive to revive order.
Police in Manhattan cleared an encampment at New York College after dawn, with video posted to social media by an official exhibiting protesters exiting their tents and dispersing when ordered to take action.
The scene appeared comparatively calm in comparison with crackdowns at different campuses across the nation – and a few worldwide – the place protests over Israel’s battle towards Hamas in Gaza have multiplied in latest weeks.
College directors, who’ve tried to steadiness the correct to protest and complaints of violence and hate speech, have more and more referred to as on police to filter the demonstrators forward of year-end exams and commencement ceremonies.
On the College of Chicago, the college’s president mentioned talks with protesters on a compromise had failed and indicated that the college would possibly intervene in an encampment there because of this.
The information got here the identical day that dozens of American flag-wielding counter-protesters confirmed up and confronted the college’s pro-Palestinian group, however police separated the 2 sides, native media reported.
Greater than 2,000 arrests have been made prior to now two weeks throughout america, some throughout violent confrontations with police, giving rise to accusations of use of extreme drive.
President Joe Biden, who has confronted stress from all political sides over the battle in Gaza, gave his first expansive remarks on the protests Thursday, saying that “order should prevail”.
“We aren’t an authoritarian nation the place we silence folks or squash dissent,” Biden mentioned in a quick handle from the White Home.
“However neither are we a lawless nation. We’re a civil society, and order should prevail.”
His remarks got here hours after police moved in on demonstrators on the College of California, Los Angeles, which had seen a violent confrontation when counter-protesters attacked a fortified encampment there.
A big police contingent forcibly cleared the sprawling encampment early Thursday whereas flash bangs have been launched to disperse crowds gathered outdoors.
College officers mentioned that greater than 200 folks have been arrested.
