Officers in riot gear raid encampment at dawn as university warns demonstrators that failure to leave could lead to arrest
Police have dismantled the student-led Palestinian solidarity encampment at the University of Southern California.
About 4am on Saturday, as many as 100 Los Angeles police officers in riot gear raided the encampment at dawn as anti-war student demonstrators slept in the tents. In a series of tweets during the raid, the university warned demonstrators to leave the area, adding that “people who don’t leave could be arrested”.
Speaking to KTLA, members of the student-run newspapers the Daily Trojan and Annenberg Media said: “We were just sitting here, camping out. We saw a peaceful encampment. They’ve been eating food, having teach-ins … and then they eventually went in their tents later in the night and then at around 4[am] actually, we saw dozens of DPS cars [department of public safety] come in and then from there, they started bringing in the officers.”
“Before they came in, it was very peaceful. People were sleeping, in fact,” another member said, adding: “At 4am was when … we saw dozens of LAPD officers sort of come in, essentially in trucks, standing on the trucks. I think there were about four trucks, each of them had about a dozen or so police officers … Along with that, we also had DPS come in.”
Videos posted online by the Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation at USC showed dozens of riot police marching throughout campus as others stood guard with multiple zip ties hanging from their belts.
Around them, anti-war student protesters chanted: “Free, free Palestine!” Others chanted, “Who do you protect?” and “Fascists, fascists, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide.
