Just hours after another pro-Palestinian encampment was established on the UCLA campus on Thursday morning, police declared an unlawful assembly and forced the protesters to disperse.
Around 7 a.m., protesters used tables, metal fences, plywood, and other materials to block off a plaza outside Kerckhoff Hall. Campus security, Santa Monica and Los Angeles police later surrounded the encampment, forming a skirmish line between the barricaded area and hundreds of supporters who were gathered nearby.
Early Thursday afternoon, police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly. By 1 p.m., officers pushed their way into the encampment and cleared the area in a matter of minutes.
Several hundred demonstrators who had been driven from the encampment marched north down Charles Young Dr., and about 150 to 200 entered Dodd Hall, where classes were in session, KNX News’ Pete Demetriou reports.
LAPD officers and sheriff’s deputies in tactical gear were outside the building, but as KNX News' Nataly Tavidian reports, after tensions flared up again briefly, students decided to leave when prompted to do so by officers.
No arrests have been reported.
The protest comes as UCLA Chancellor Gene Block testified before Congress about the university’s response to the last pro-Palestinian encampment. In his opening remarks, Block said the university should have acted to remove protesters sooner.
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