Police break-up pro-Gaza protests across campuses

Hundreds arrested during violent action on peaceful camps

- RICHARD HALL AMBER JAMIESON MIKE BEDIGAN

Police in riot gear have violently broken up peaceful Gaza solidarity protests at college campuses across the country, arresting over 500 people in the process. Images of armed police beating students, throwing them to the ground and using tear gas to disperse the protests have flooded social media in the past few days as the protests continued to spread.

One video from Emory University in Atlanta yesterday showed police using a taser on a Black man who was being restrained by three officers on the ground. Witnesses also reported police firing some kind of non-lethal projectile into the crowd.

Local outlet Mainline reported that 18 people had been arrested at the Atlanta university. A spokesperson for the university said the initial crowd of protesters who gathered on the campus “were not recognised as members of our community and were disrupting the university as our students finish classes and prepare for finals”.

“Some members of the Emory community later joined the initial group,” said the spokesperson, Laura Diamond, adding that multiple police warnings for the crowd to disperse were ignored.

The Atlanta Police Department said in a statement that its officers “were met with violence” when they were “securing the campus”.

Alan, a senior at the University of Southern California, said that a peaceful protest on the university campus on Wednesday had escalated suddenly when armed police arrived to disperse student protesters with rubber bullets and riot gear.