The Los Angeles Police Division arrived at USC early Sunday morning in an obvious transfer to clear the camp.
Movies from contained in the campus confirmed dozens of officers in riot gear on the camp. Fireplace crews have been additionally there. USC issued an alert saying the LAPD had arrived and that folks ought to depart the middle of campus. Those that didn’t might face arrest, the alert stated.
“LAPD are right here. We’re prepared for them,” stated a camp spokesperson in a short telephone interview with The Occasions.
Final month, Los Angeles police arrested 93 individuals on suspicion of trespassing final week as they cleared an earlier encampment on the middle of campus.
However protesters reestablished campsite final weekend. In a campus-wide letter printed Friday, USC President Carol Folt indicated that the encampment wouldn’t be permitted to stay for much longer.
“The college is legally obligated to make sure that college students, college, and employees can transfer freely all through our campus whereas pursuing their research, work, and analysis,” Folt stated. “Each a part of our campuses, together with Alumni Park, have to be totally accessible and free from vandalism and harassment.”
The encampment at Alumni Park has grown to no less than 40 tents and roughly 50 individuals, in response to scholar organizers. Regardless of the arrests, college students stated there’s at the moment not a robust police presence surrounding the camp, apart from just a few campus security officers.
Nonetheless, scholar journalists at USC Annenberg reported that Nancy Alonzo, assistant director of the USC Village Residential Schools, visited the sting of the campsite Saturday afternoon and learn one other letter aloud to members of the coed motion.
“The encampment has to go down, as we’ve got talked about earlier than, your encampment and acts of vandalism and the theft of college property violates insurance policies and the regulation,” Alonzo reportedly stated. “These insurance policies truly exist to guard the protection and safety of each member of our group and we should implement these insurance policies persistently as we’ve got all the time completed. After which we additionally arrange another free speech space that’s accessible to you all and you’ll transfer the encampment there.”
Members of the coed coalition stated they weren’t permitted to take an image of Alonzo’s letter or to obtain a bodily copy.
College students within the camp, who name themselves the Divest from Loss of life Coalition, stated they don’t seem to be curious about relocating to the designated free speech space, behind the Leavey Library south of W. thirty fourth St.
“Protest areas can’t be dictated by the individuals in energy as a result of then it’s not the liberty to protest and assemble,” stated the encampment spokesperson, who didn’t wish to establish themselves due to worry of retaliation from the USC administration and college students against their activism.
The spokesperson described Saturday night as “calm” and “chill.” In the course of the interview, college students have been heard cheering within the background. An Instagram story posted by Trojans for Palestine confirmed college students sitting in Alumni Park on picnic blankets and orange House Depot paint buckets, clapping and singing “we will not be moved.”
However protesters have been prepared for arrest, the spokesperson stated.
“There’s worry within the air. There’s confidence. There’s ardour. We’re emboldened to face up for the individuals in Gaza,” they stated. “Regardless of how this occupation goes down, it’s nonetheless a win for us as a result of we’ve got triggered a disruption and discomfort to the USC administration. We now have ended enterprise as common for the previous few weeks.”
The choice to clear the camp on April 24 sparked anger, coming after USC barred valedictorian Asna Tabassum from talking at its Could 10 graduation — a primary within the college’s 143-year historical past — over unspecified security threats. The transfer got here after pro-Israel teams criticized Tabassum for a hyperlink on her Instagram profile directing individuals to a pro-Palestinian web site.
That led officers to cancel graduation all collectively.
However on Friday, USC introduced plans for a “Trojan Household” commencement occasion on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The occasion will happen Thursday, Could 9 at 8:30 p.m. USC introduced on Thursday. The college guarantees a drone present, fireworks, shock performances and the Trojan Marching Band. The college additionally promised a particular present for the category of 2024.
USC is the newest college to take motion in opposition to camps.
Not less than 25 individuals have been arrested early Tuesday at Cal Poly Humboldt. The identical night time at UCLA, a big group sporting black outfits and white masks attacked pro-Palestinian protesters, hurling objects and trying to tear down barricades surrounding the encampment. The violence prompted criticism over the college’s dealing with of the protests.
By Thursday, greater than 200 had been arrested after police moved onto UCLA’s Westwood campus to push protesters out and start dismantling the camp.
Professional-Palestinian protesters calling for an finish to Israeli army actions in Gaza and divestment from Israel.
Encampments stay in full swing at California campuses, together with UC Irvine, Occidental Faculty, Sacramento State, San Francisco State and others.
Not less than two different Southern California schools — Chapman College and Cal State L.A. — joined the motion this week. College students at Cal State Lengthy Seashore held a rally Thursday, however have stated there aren’t any plans for an encampment.
