I’m in charge of the Garbage Brigade!
Anti-Israel demonstrators at Portland State University (PSU) stormed out of the campus library Thursday morning in a motley group laden with bicycle helmets and makeshift shields made from trash cans during a police crackdown.
But despite their screams, they were quickly stopped by waiting police, footage showed. Captured by KGW8.
Some managed to scurry away and evade arrest, while others appeared to try to ram a line of officers before being grabbed and thrown to the ground, footage showed.
Protesters, who the Light Brigade riders would have shaken their heads at, have occupied PSU’s Blandford Miller Library since Monday, forcing the campus to close for the third day in a row. Police finally broke into the library first thing Thursday morning.
Once inside, police found what appeared to be makeshift weapons and armor, including a bucket of ball bearings, a balloon filled with paint, and a cup of dish soap. There was a note that said, “If this happens, throw it down the stairs.”
According to a report by KGW8, only four of the 12 people arrested were confirmed to be students.
The crackdown in Portland followed an early morning police raid on violent anti-Israel protesters at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
On Thursday, camps at universities across the country broke down, and police finally descended on them and made arrests en masse.
At UCLA, at least 132 demonstrators were arrested in the raid hours after a barricaded encampment (which had its own security presence on the perimeter) refused to disperse Wednesday evening.
California Highway Patrol, armed with smoke grenades, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades, broke into the camp, which had been the scene of several unruly incidents since it rose, around 3 a.m. It was closed on.
The protesters left, but their encampment was left with ruined debris that obscured the Quad’s typically vibrant greenery. Workers had to force entry and remove piles of trash, debris from structures used as barriers, and numerous tattered tents where protesters were being housed. Was alive.
The scenes at PSU and UCLA mirrored the chaos that erupted at Columbia University in New York City earlier in the week, after the New York Police Department finally raided protesters who had barricaded themselves in buildings on campus.
During Tuesday night’s raid, officers smashed windows on the upper floor of Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, broke down blocked doors, and dismantled barricades erected around classroom furniture. , more than 100 people were arrested.
More people were taken into custody at City College, about 20 blocks north, resulting in about 280 arrests at both schools.
At least 47 non-students were among those arrested.
However, not all encampments ended in chaos.
At Brown University, protesters and administrators on Tuesday agreed to break up the camp until the end of the school year in exchange for talks with the school’s governing body in May on demands that the school sever any ties to the company. Reached. They are enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza.” According to Axios.
According to the agreement, the results of the talks between the two sides will be put to a vote in October.
