Authorities reported that more than 2,400 people have been arrested for being part of mobs of pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses. The information was confirmed by the AP.
The information was reported at the same time that it was learned that after more than an hour of tensions during the night, police finally managed to dismantle the camp full of pro-Hamas vandals who occupied the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The officers had to resort to using tear gas against the radicals who had barricaded themselves and who were attacking them with bottles and fire extinguishers. The clashes on that campus resulted in numerous injuries and at least 132 arrests. Classes were suspended for several days.
Likewise, according to an AFP count, the demonstrations have spread to at least 30 universities across the country since they began last month at Columbia University in New York.
Many protesters posing as students but who actually have no affiliation with the universities have been reported. For example, half of the 300 protesters arrested in New York were not university students.
"The office of New York Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday night that almost half of those arrested at the two schools on Tuesday night were people not belonging to those educational centers," AFP indicated.
Meanwhile, many have criticized the actions of Joe Biden's government in the face of the violence that the demonstrations have generated. The president has rejected the protests and defended the arrests.
"We are not an authoritarian nation, where we silence people or squash dissent. ... But neither are we a lawless country," Biden said in statements reported by AFP.
