Screen grab from CBS8 vid showing people arrested in line.
Law enforcement has cleared out the “Gaza Solidarity” encampment at UC San Diego. Dozens of protesters were detained or arrested, according to media reports.
Authorities declared the encampment an unlawful assembly at about 5:45 a.m. and ordered the protesters to leave.
The university announced that there was police activity from North Torrey Pines Road to Interstate 5. Non-essential employees were advised to move to remote operations, while essential employees were directed to report to work as usual, according to UCSD.
All west campus facilities were closed, but dining and housing remained open. All events scheduled Monday on the west campus were canceled.
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The UC San Diego Central Campus Trolley Station was temporarily closed Monday, according to the Metropolitan Transit System. Trains were bypassing the station. The Gilman Transit Center was also closed and buses were detouring around activity.
Authorities asked the public to avoid the area but solidarity activists were asking for supporters to come to the site and keep authorities accountable.
The U-T reported:
Police descended on the encampment near Geisel Library just after 6 a.m., arrested more than 30 people and began taking down their tent city. University officials said students had been given orders to disperse with about 10 minutes’ notice. It was not immediately clear if efforts had been made to negotiate an end to the encampment.
By 7 a.m., most of the tents had been dismantled, Officers had surrounded the encampment and arrested protesters in a long line snaking along Library Walk who were chanting “free, free Palestine.”
Just before 8 a.m., campus maintenance workers were throwing tents and other leftovers of the encampment into a truck.
The university closed its west campus, from North Torrey Pines Road to Interstate 5, and told people to avoid the area. All classes were moved to remote.
The action involved about 200 campus police, the California Highway Patrol and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, the university confirmed, and it comes on the morning the campus’ chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was scheduled to begin its annual weeklong Justice in Palestine Week event at the university.
On Sunday, the encampment had drawn upward of 200 counterprotesters during a tense but peaceful showdown near Geisel Library. The number of tents had grown to more than 50 since the mini-village was created on Wednesday.
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NBC reports: By 7:30 a.m. the encampment was cleared and all demonstrators were taken to jail by San Diego County Sheriffs. NBC 7 spoke with the California Highway Patrol on site who said they arrested students for failing to follow a dispersal order and said they were on campus on request of UCSD.
All classes were moved remotely effective immediately, according to an email sent to students and staff.
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/police-uc-san-diegos-pro-palestinian-encampment/3507445/
One of the Rag’s UC contacts says hundreds are protesting the arrests on campus.
NBC7 reported: Later in the morning, officials told NBC 7 that law enforcement had arrested 64 people, 40 of whom were students.
“… twenty-four were unaffiliated or their status is unknown at this time,” the school’s communications department told NBC 7. “The arrested students have been or will be placed under immediate interim suspension.”
U-T: Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside the San Diego central jail downtown Monday, chanting “let them go,” hours after police in riot gear cleared a protest encampment at UC San Diego and arrested more than 60 people.