April 25, 2024 - US university protests

An encampment has been formed at Northeastern University in Boston, where dozens of protesters can be seen forming a human chain around several tents. 

Uniformed members of the Northeastern University Police Department and the Boston Police Department are present at what appears to be a peaceful protest.

Students can be heard chanting several protest chants, including "Who do you protect, who do you serve?" "Viva, viva Palestine," and "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Some law enforcement on site are wearing helmets and carrying zip ties.

Several apparent students wearing yarmulkes are in a crowd watching the protesters. 

A "demonstration with encampments" has formed at the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) in Royce Quad, the university said in a campus activity update Thursday. 

Access to Royce Hall and Powell Library are restricted but campus life will continue as usual and "classes will be held as planned," according to the update. 

"We’re actively monitoring this situation to support a safe and peaceful campus environment that respects our community’s right to free expression while minimizing disruption to our teaching and learning mission," the update said. 

The encampment comes after police arrested nearly 100 protesters at the nearby University of Southern California after a dispersal order.

Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA posted on Instagram inviting others to join and said, "WE ARE STAYING UNTIL OUR DEMANDS ARE MET! BE HERE!" 

"We camp in solidarity with Palestine. We refuse to be complicit in this genocidal campaign," the post said.

Aerial photos from CNN affiliate KCAL show people sitting scattered throughout Royce Quad with tents Thursday. The demonstrators appear peaceful. 

The New York Police Department has pulled out from City College of New York and now no action is imminent, according to a law enforcement official. 

City College of New York officials said they would give the NYPD their written request but so far have not, the official said. In response, NYPD officials have pulled out and no clearing of the park is now expected soon, the official said.

Earlier today, a law enforcement official said the NYPD had been in touch with officials from City College of New York and planned to clear the campus of an encampment set up by pro-Palestine protesters.

The NYPD was expected to move in and clear out the encampment sometime before 5 pm ET Thursday, the official said.

Similar encampments are sweeping universities across the nation, where hundreds of protesters have been arrested.

College administrators have been under intense scrutiny in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and Harvard University president Claudine Gay both stepped down in the wake of pressure over their response to antisemitism on campus.

Now, just over nine months into her tenure, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik — an Egyptian-born economist and former high-ranking official at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Bank of England, and former president of the London School of Economics — is under pressure for her handling of Columbia campus protests.

At Columbia, some students, faculty and left-leaning lawmakers are enraged that Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to shut down pro-Palestinian student protests. They say the crackdown on student demonstrations, which resulted in more than 100 arrests, violated academic freedom. At the same time, students, religious groups and right-leaning lawmakers say the administration has failed to stop antisemitism inside Columbia’s campus and at protests outside its gates.

Read more here.

Organizers of the demonstrations at Emory University on Thursday said law enforcement are responsible for protesters who were “indiscriminately attacked” during an encampment on campus.

“The Georgia State Patrol, Atlanta Police Department, and Emory Police Department all bear responsibility for this overt act of terrorism,” organizers said in a statement.

The organizers said the protesters will “continue the call for Emory University to completely divest from all programs enabling Israeli apartheid.” They also called for “an end to the police's brutality and the immediate release of all activists arrested.”

“Despite the violence authorized by the Emory President Greg Fenves and Dean of Campus Life Enku Gelaye, protestors continue their action on campus and call for the broader Atlanta community to join them,” the organizers said.

A CNN crew witnessed at least two professors detained by Atlanta police, including Emory University economics professor Caroline Fohlin and Noëlle McAfee, chair of the philosophy department.

CNN filmed video of women being detained. During her interaction with police, Professor Fohlin could be heard expressing concern about the violent arrests and use of force by police against individuals she identified as students. 

The Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter in Georgia on Thursday condemned the “use of force and arrests” by police officers against protesters at Emory University in Atlanta.

“Protesters shared a day of cultural learning and community despite which Emory deployed excessive use of force, tear gas, and rubber bullets,” the organization said in a statement. “Emory University and APD fully bear responsibility for the violence we are seeing at the Emory campus right now. Students and protesters must be allowed their full constitutional rights.”

Protesters were arrested on the campus of Emory University after an encampment was formed in the university quad area Thursday morning.

Video from the scene showed law enforcement officers wrangling protesters to the ground and forcefully putting people in zip-tie handcuffs.

Law enforcement officers used pepper spray to help clear the area of demonstrators, a CNN team on the scene reported. They also deployed pepper balls against a crowd gathered around protesters that had been detained by police. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas warned against state and university officials deploying law enforcement to “violently censor” protests held by pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the University of Texas at Austin and other universities across the nation.

“The First Amendment guarantees people in Texas and across the nation the right to protest, including those who advocate for Palestinians,” a statement from the group read. “However, state leaders rapidly escalated a planned day of peaceful demonstrations by deploying law enforcement in riot gear against students and the press. Public officials don’t get to forcefully suppress the voices of people they disagree with.”

Dozens of protesters were arrested at UT Austin Wednesday.

In its statement, the ACLU of Texas called on state officials to create safe spaces for students, staff and faculty to protest.

Emerson College President Jay Bernhardt said he "recognizes and respects the civic activism and passion that sparked the protest" in a statement Thursday after law enforcement officials cleared a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at the school, leading to dozens of arrests on Wednesday night.

"Emerson staff and administrators were at the scene, focused on supporting our students through this highly stressful situation and seeking to de-escalate the conflict," Bernhardt said. "Today, Emerson officials were at the police precincts and courthouses with the arrested students, and the College will receive them back on campus when they are released."

More than 100 people were arrested and four police officers were injured during the encampment clearing at the Boston liberal arts college, according to the Boston Police Department.

Bernhardt said that he understood that the encampment clearing "has significantly and adversely impacted our community" and offered students the support of grief counselors on campus on Thursday.