Los Angeles police began dismantling plywood barriers around an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA early Thursday morning, following an outburst of violence when counterprotesters faced off with demonstrators on campus earlier this week, according to reports.
The police action followed announcements beginning Wednesday evening that protesters would be arrested if they did not disperse, the Daily Bruin, the school newspaper reported Thursday morning.
"You risk serious injury," an officer said on a loudspeaker, the report said.
The sound of helicopters hovering overhead mixed with the pop of flash-bangs on campus in the early morning hours as police outfitted in riot gear and carrying zip ties began moving in on the hundreds of protesters that remained on campus, the Associated Press reported.
Officers began tearing apart the makeshift barrier of plywood, wooden pallets, metal fences and trash dumpsters. Other officers began tearing down tents and canopies, as protesters held up umbrellas as shields, the AP reported.
Some of the protesters began chanting "LAPD, KKK, IDF, you're all the same," the Daily Bruin reported, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. Others called out to "Free Palestine."
Dozens of protesters were detained, their wrists tied with zip ties.
Groups of pro-Israeli protesters clashed with pro-Palestinian groups on the Los Angeles campus Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
The dismantling of the encampment at UCLA comes just days after New York City police officers cleared protesters from Columbia University after they barricaded themselves in a school building on the Ivy League campus.
