CAIR-LA calls for California attorney general to investigate law enforcement response at UCLA
The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned violence that broke out last night between counterprotesters and anti-war demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles.
In an emailed statement, executive director Hussam Ayloush of CAIR's L.A. chapter said he is calling on the state attorney general's office to investigate "the lack of response" by university and Los Angeles police officers.
"Last night’s attack on UCLA students supporting Palestine was only the latest incident of violence against them," the statement read in part. "In recent days, pro-Israel extremists directed racial slurs and sexual threats at students, spat on a student, and released a pack of mice into the encampment."
He added that violence has no place in free speech and said there would have been a “national outcry” if it had been the pro-Palestinian students inciting violence instead of pro-Israel counterprotesters.
“Across our nation, students who have launched peaceful marches, sit-ins, and encampments to protest their institution’s financial investments in the Israeli government have been met with a campaign of disinformation, discrimination, and now disturbing violence," the statement went on. "This must end. UCLA and other schools must ensure that students can continue to peacefully protest the genocide in Gaza without facing attacks by violent pro-Israel mobs."
Gov. Gavin Newsom condemns violence at UCLA and delayed campus police response
Gov. Gavin Newsom said today he condemns the violence that unfolded in his home state at UCLA last night.
“The law is clear: The right to free speech does not extend to inciting violence, vandalism, or lawlessness on campus. Those who engage in illegal behavior must be held accountable for their actions — including through criminal prosecution, suspension, or expulsion,” he said on X.
In a statement from his press office, the governor called the “limited and delayed” campus law enforcement response to UCLA last night “unacceptable — and it demands answers.”
“As soon as it became clear that state assistance was needed to support a local response, our office immediately deployed CHP personnel to campus.”
Columbia associate professor condemns police crackdown: 'An absolute failure of management'
Columbia University associate professor of English and comparative literature Joseph Slaughter said the NYPD's dismantling of protests on campus yesterday was "an absolute failure of management" and "completely inappropriate."
Slaughter said he, along with faculty and most students, was entirely locked out of campus yesterday, but he witnessed the armed NYPD truck pull up to campus and the NYPD's strategic response group climb through the windows of Hamilton Hall to arrest students.
Slaughter called Mayor Eric Adams' claim that "outside agitators led" the takeover of Hamilton Hall "irresponsible" before "the facts have actually been determined."
He said students have said police may be calling their friends the agitators.
"From what I’ve heard from students who are engaged with this question constantly, they think it’s their friends and entirely their friends. It may be that there was an outside agitator or two, but I don’t know," he explained.
"As I understand that the people who were arrested last night are still in jail, and so until they've come out of jail, we won’t actually know who it was that was actually in Hamilton Hall," said Slaughter, who also serves as the director of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights.
Slaughter was part of a faculty demonstration this morning outside of the locked campus gates at 116th and Amsterdam in solidarity with the student community and “condemning President Shafik and the board of trustees who authorized bringing in a heavily armed SWAT team on the campus.”
He noted that the encampment protests were "completely peaceful, nonviolent," though Hamilton Hall is a different case. "However, it’s completely inappropriate that the first reaction is to try to solve this with hardened police forces. It demonstrates to me an absolute failure of management at all levels," he said.
He said the relationship between the administration and students and faculty is "destroyed" — "It’s a crisis level like I’ve never seen before. I’ve been here 24 years."
"If the senior administration had listened to the voices of students back in October and November, if they had listened to the voices of faculty with expertise on these things, with deep knowledge on the history of student protests — we didn’t ever have to get to this point. But they stymied every possibility and villainized the students so that it was impossible for them to have other channels of speech."
Protesters form encampment at Fordham University at Lincoln Center
A group of protesters at Fordham University at Lincoln Center formed an encampment today in the Leon Lowenstein Center with demonstrators supporting “solidarity” with other campuses that have made encampments and had them torn down.
“ONE CAMP COMES DOWN, TWO MORE SPRING UP,” read a message on one of the tents. “SOLIDARITY WITH COLUMBIA AND CCNY.”
Other signs lining the windows of the building entrance read, “GAZA SOLIDARITY ENCAMPMENT,” “WE DEMAND DIVESTMENT,” and “STUDENTS 4 PALESTINE LIBERATION.”
The Fordham Coalition for Palestine said in a statement Wednesday that “in direct response to the attack on Rafah and the police repression at the Columbia University and City University of New York,” the coalition would establish the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian People."
Fordham did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
“The coalition condemns the actions of the Israeli Occupation Forces and New York’s Israeli-trained police and demands Fordham University disclose and divest from all companies (Northrop Grumman, Chevron, Google, etc.) complicit in the Israeli occupation and ongoing siege,” the group said.
As of early Wednesday afternoon, there were about 100 people gathered outside the Lowenstein building. It was not immediately clear how many protesters were inside the building, but there were about 10 tents inside the building and video taken earlier showed at least a dozen protesters.
More than a dozen officers also flanked the building.
Columbia University makes final exams remote
All final exams and assessments at Columbia University will be remote, the Ivy League’s provost said in an email to students and faculty today.
Further, all academic activities for schools on the Morningside Heights campus will be fully remote for the remainder of the semester, and any remaining class meetings, review sessions or office hours should also be held remotely.
Protesters clash with police at University of Wisconsin-Madison encampment
At least 12 people were arrested, including several who resisted arrest, as police dispersed an encampment of protesters after 7 a.m., the UW-Madison Police Department said Wednesday.
Four members of law enforcement were injured during clashes with protesters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, police said in a statement. Three Dane County deputies were injured “all directly related to the physical resistance,” and one state trooper “sustained injuries when a protester struck their head with a skateboard,” the statement said.
“It is not yet clear how many are affiliated with UW–Madison,” police said.
Earlier Wednesday morning, protesters clashed with police at UW-Madison as police carried out arrests and cleared out an encampment by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on campus. Protesters at UW-Madison, and dozens more across the country, have been calling for their universities to divest funding supporting Israel.
Police can be seen pushing back screaming protesters, some with signs and some wearing masks, and tearing down tents. Some protesters confronted police, resulting in clashes.
CAIR-NY demands charges be dropped against student protesters arrested at Columbia and CCNY
The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ New York chapter denounced the NYPD arrest of student protesters who "are on the right side of history" yesterday and called for the Manhattan district attorney to drop charges against them.
In total, 282 people were arrested on both campuses yesterday after students refused to end their demonstrations that demanded their institutions divest from Israel.
“It is sad but not surprising that Columbia University and CCNY officials would rather unleash the NYPD on their own students than simply meet their demand to divest from the Israeli government and its genocide in Gaza,” CAIR-NY Executive Director Afaf Nasher said in a statement today. “Instead of joining students calling for an end to war profiteering, our universities are profiting from ethnic-based massacres.”
Nasher said as students called for a cease-fire and peace in Israel and Gaza, these colleges were "inviting violence onto campuses with police arrests."
"It is not complicated: suspensions, expulsions, and even violent arrests will not end campus protests. Students have made it clear that they require a true commitment to ending complicity in genocide," Nasher said. "CAIR-NY commends their pursuit to do their part in ending American support of Israel’s continued genocide. We fully expect these same schools to one day celebrate these students the same way students who occupied Hamilton Hall decades ago are celebrated today."
Hamilton Hall occupants both students and outsiders, Columbia says
The pro-Palestinian protesters arrested last night inside Hamilton Hall were a combination of Columbia University students and outsiders, the school's president said.
The building's takeover was the the final straw, pushing university officials into calling for police to clear out Hamilton Hall and the protest encampment, university President Minouche Shafik said.
"They have many supporters in our community and have a right to express their views and engage in peaceful protest," Shafik said in a statement today. "But students and outside activists breaking Hamilton Hall doors, mistreating our Public Safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property are acts of destruction, not political speech."
Hours before police action yesterday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams blamed unspecified “outsiders” for campus volatility. He said this morning that while some students were involved in the occupation of Hamilton Hall, they were “led by individuals not affiliated with the university.” Columbia has not responded to a request for comment regarding the statement.
Police fire tear gas on University of Southern Florida protesters
Police in riot gear fired tear gas on demonstrators at a University of South Florida pro-Palestinian protest yesterday.
Ten people were arrested after police declared the protest an “unlawful assembly” yesterday afternoon. School officials had said in a release that 75 to 100 protesters — including some students and some not affiliated with the university — arrived on campus with wood shields, umbrellas and tents.
“As the day progressed, police observed participants in person and through social media expressing their intent to use some of the items they brought on campus as weapons and to resist university staff members and law enforcement officers. As a result, USF police determined that the protest was no longer peaceful, and participants must leave the area,” USF said.
Jewish Federation says it’s 'appalled' at UCLA protest violence
Jewish Federation Los Angeles said today it was “appalled at the violence that took place on the campus of UCLA last night.”
“The abhorrent actions of a few counter protestors last night do not represent the Jewish community or our values,” the group said in a statement. “We believe in peaceful, civic discourse.”
It said the violence was a “result of the lack of leadership from the Chancellor and the UCLA administration.”
“The Chancellor has allowed for an environment to be created over many months that has made students feel unsafe, allowed for illegal encampments in violation of its own laws, refused to censure faculty and staff who flouted UCLA’s Code of Conduct, and has been systemically slow to respond when law enforcement is desperately needed,” the statement said.
The federation called on the chancellor and the UCLA administration to close the encampment and meet with leaders of the Jewish community.