College protests live updates: UCLA cancels classes after protestors clash 1 updated

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Kamala Harris took a significant step toward election on Tuesday with a win in Florida, returning the state an its 30 electoral votes to the Democratic column for the first time since Barack Obama won the state in 2012. Harris’ win in the Sunshine State is a setback for Donald Trump, who won Florida in 2016 on his way to the White House and grew his margin of victory in the state in his 2020 loss to Biden. The Associated Press declared Harris the winner at 11:21 p.m.ET.

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At least 132 people were arrested at UCLA Thursday morning, says Sgt. Alejandro Rubio, a spokesperson for the CHP Southern Division.

“It could be more but that’s the latest I have,” Rubio told The Associated Press.

Rubio said the arrestees were being taken for booking at the inmate reception center at the county jails complex near downtown Los Angeles.

He said the UCLA police force was the lead agency and would recommend which charges should be brought against those arrested.

A crowd of more than 1,000 people had gathered on campus, both inside and outside of the encampment, and officers had spent hours threatening arrests over loudspeakers if people did not disperse.

After the arrests, workers entered the encampment site and began cleaning up, hauling away sheets of plywood that were used to build a barricade and sweeping trash from graffiti-scarred steps.

Police at Northern Arizona University overnight arrested 24 protesters, 22 of whom are NAU students. The university also placed the organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, on interim suspension because of alleged violations of school policies.

After Tuesday’s protest, the university is prohibiting temporary structures on campus property, including tents, shade structures and fencing. And expressive activity allowed only between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily, in line with the school’s business hours.

Police removed barricades and began dismantling pro-Palestinian demonstrators’ encampment early Thursday at the University of California, Los Angeles, after hundreds of protesters defied orders to leave.The action came after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loudspeakers if people did not disperse. A crowd of more than 1,000 had gathered on campus, both inside a barricaded tent encampment and outside it, in support. Protesters and police scuffled and some people were detained, their hands bound with zip ties.Protesters chanted, “Where were you last night?” at the officers, in reference to Tuesday night, when counterprotesters attacked the encampment and the UCLA administration and campus police took hours to respond.

Judge Merchan has returned to the bench and Trump is also back in the courtroom.

“OK, where do we stand?” Merchan asked the lawyers, who have been going through trial transcripts to isolate portions requested by the jury.

After going through areas of agreement about how to respond to some of the jury’s requests, the two sides are now asking the judge to settle disagreements about exactly which lines of Pecker’s testimony about the Trump Tower meeting will be read to the jurors.

Police said Thursday they detained the driver of a white Toyota Camry who briefly accelerated toward a crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Portland State University in Oregon, then ran off spraying what appeared to be pepper spray toward protesters who confronted him.

The man was taken to a hospital on a police mental health hold, the Portland Police Bureau said in a written statement late Thursday afternoon. They did not release his name.

People screamed as the vehicle accelerated from a stop toward the crowd on Thursday afternoon, but the driver braked before it reached anyone. Demonstrators approached the car and began striking it, and the driver exited and sprinted off while aiming the spray toward those trying to catch him.

Police said they found the driver later and took him into custody. Demonstrators badly damaged the car, smashing in windows and spray-painting graffiti on it. The incident came hours after Portland police cleared out a library on campus that protesters had occupied since Monday. Officers said they arrested 22 people, including seven students, on Thursday.

The New York Police Department said in a statement Thursday that on Tuesday an officer accidentally discharged his firearm when police responded to Columbia University.

At approximately 9:38 p.m., an officer searching an area on the first floor tried to access a barricaded area, the statement said. He was trying to use the flashlight attached to his gun at the time and instead fired a single round that struck a frame on the wall. No one but police personnel were nearby, according to the statement, which also said no one was hurt.

The NYPD investigated and determined the discharge to be accidental. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has been given the body camera footage that shows the incident.

Rutgers University Chancellor Francine Conway, Ph.D., said in a letter to the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus community Thursday that the student protesters agreed to peacefully end their protest and were removing their tents and belongings.

The Columbia University chapter of the American Association of University Professors is condemning the school’s leadership for asking the New York Police Department to remove student protesters this week.

The union group issued a statement Thursday morning calling for a vote of “no confidence” in the university administration, saying the decision to summon police was made without consultation of the University Senate and in violation of the university’s
established procedures.

“These offenses culminated in the horrific police attack on our students that is now shamefully on view for the whole world to see,” the AAUP chapter wrote. “Faculty, staff, and students were locked out of our campus even prior to the police raid and remain locked out as of this writing: from their offices, labs and libraries for the first time in Columbia history.”

Police carrying riot shields stormed a Columbia University building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters late Tuesday, arresting dozens of people. Similar police actions have occurred at college protests across the U.S. over the last two weeks.

Several Republican members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee made a visit Wednesday to a campus protest site in the nation’s capital.

The congressional visit to George Washington University lasted about 15 minutes. Some students shouted questions while others ignored the lawmakers and sang Palestinian nationalist songs. As the representatives headed back to their van, jubilant demonstrators marched back to the center of University Yard.

Last week, the university administration gave protestors an ultimatum to disperse. But that deadline came and went.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has confirmed that police declined the university’s request to intervene. Bowser said there was no violence that needed to be interrupted.

“Mayor Bowser has let down the city of Washington,” Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds said. “The mayor is weak in the face of foolishness.”

The congressional committee plans a hearing next week on the district government’s response to the protest at George Washington University.

Months before they pitched their tents on Columbia University’s main lawn, inspiring a wave of protest encampments at college campuses nationwide, a small group of pro-Palestinian student activists met privately to sketch out the logistical details of a round-the-clock occupation.

In hours of planning sessions, they discussed communications strategies and their willingness to risk arrest, along with the more prosaic questions of bathroom access and trash removal. Then, after scouring online retailers and Craigslist for the most affordable options, they ordered the tents.

“There’s been a lot of work, a lot of meetings that went into it, and when we finally pulled it off, we had no idea how it would go,” said Columbia graduate student Elea Sun.

Those involved with the Columbia protest, also known as the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” describe their organizing efforts as both meticulously planned and heavily improvised. They say the university’s aggressive tactics to quell the movement have only lent it more momentum.

▶ Read more about how the Columbia protests fueled a nationwide movement.

Things were subdued at the campus early Wednesday. Police were moved back and there were no counter-protesters in sight.

At the protesters’ encampment, people would peer out from behind their barricades every so often but it was quiet there too.

House Republicans on Tuesday announced an investigation into the federal funding for universities where students have protested the Israel-Hamas war, broadening a campaign that has placed heavy scrutiny on how presidents at the nation’s most prestigious colleges have dealt with reports of antisemitism on campus.

Several House committees will be tasked with a wide probe that ultimately threatens to withhold federal research grants and other government support to the universities, placing another pressure point on campus administrators who are struggling to manage pro-Palestinian encampments, allegations of discrimination against Jewish students and questions of how they are integrating free speech and campus safety.

The House investigation follows several recent high-profile hearings that precipitated the resignations of presidents at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. And House Republicans promised more scrutiny, saying they were calling on the administrators of Yale, UCLA and the University of Michigan to testify next month.

▶ Read more about the House investigation.

The Associated Press is answering readers’ questions about the ongoing anti-war protests at college campuses across the United States.

▶ Use our question form to tell us what you want to know. We’ll use your questions to shape our reporting.

Maryam Alwan figured the worst was over after New York City police in riot gear arrested her and other protesters on the Columbia University campus, loaded them onto buses and held them in custody for hours.

But the next evening, the college junior received an email from the university. Alwan and other students were being suspended after their arrests at the “ Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” a tactic colleges across the country have deployed to calm growing campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.

The students’ plight has become a central part of protests, with students and a growing number of faculty demanding their amnesty. At issue is whether universities and law enforcement will clear the charges and withhold other consequences, or whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students into their adult lives.

▶ Read more about the student protestors’ demands.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday morning that police had to move in to Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall “for the safety of those children.”

He blamed outside agitators for the building takeover and said “There are people who are harmful and they’re trying to radicalize our children and we cannot ignore this.”

The NYPD’s deputy commissioner for public information, Tarik Sheppard, who appeared with the mayor, held up a heavy chain and said “This is not what students bring to school. This is what we encountered on every door inside Hamilton Hall.”

Sheppard said 40 to 50 people were arrested at Hamilton Hall with no injuries. Adams said they will face charges including burglary, trespassing and criminal mischief, while those who were arrested outside the building will be face less serious charges.

Six people have been arrested and suspensions have been issued to seven students who participated in demonstrations there, the school in New Orleans said in a message to the university community early Wednesday. One more suspension was pending, officials said.

The university was also looking into reports of university employees participating in the demonstration.

“We value free speech and have supported numerous lawful demonstrations throughout this year,” the university said in the statement. “But we remain opposed to trespassing, hate speech, antisemitism and bias against religious or ethnic groups.”

Four buildings on campus would remain closed Wednesday as the demonstration continued, with classes scheduled in those buildings going remote, officials said.