Tensions are growing at the University of California where hundreds of police in riot gear have gathered after warning pro-Palestinian protesters to disperse or face arrest, a day after their encampment was violently attacked by masked counter-protesters.
Police began forming lines near the encampment at the Los Angeles campus and ordered the dispersal of more than a thousand people who had gathered in support of the protesters on Wednesday night, warning over loudspeakers that anyone who refused to leave could face arrest.
Students across the US have called for a ceasefire in Gaza and for their universities to divest from Israeli companies and those that supply the Israeli military, in some of the biggest demonstrations to roil US campuses since the anti-Vietnam war protests of the 1960s.
They generate the reason. Police are thoroughly trained in deescalation tactics. After receiving similar training, I can say it’s very easy for them to use that knowledge to escalate instead.