(RightWing.org) – Over the last couple of weeks, pro-Palestine/anti-Israel college groups started staging protests from coast to coast in response to the deadly fighting between Israel and Hamas. For the most part, the gatherings have been peaceful. However, in the past several days, things started getting out of hand as protesters started clashing with school and law enforcement officials at several prominent universities, rocking campuses nationwide.
On Wednesday, April 24, Fox News published an exhaustive report detailing the recent disruptions and uptick in clashes between anti-Israel students and local and state police officials. The media giant explained that four schools, in particular, exemplified the intense chaos surrounding the protests throughout the day. They included:
- New York’s Columbia University (Columbia)
- Massachusett’s-based Harvard University (Harvard)
- The University of Southern California (USC)
- The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin)
Protestors at Columbia have been clashing with police officers since the week of April 14. Things recently intensified when House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) traveled to the school that day to discuss the situation. Afterward, he gave a fiery speech lashing out at school officials for allowing the unruly mob to use “threats…fear, and…intimidation” to stomp on other students’ free exercise of religion, the exchange of ideas, and other governing American principles like the right to free speech.
Tensions heightened at Harvard and peaked on Wednesday after a group of protesters set up a “Gaza solidarity encampment” at the school’s main yard. Fox reported that video footage showed protesting students disrupting school activity as they pitched roughly 20 tents throughout the quadrangle in a “frenetic manner.”
Chaos broke out at the USC campus after the school administration asked various law enforcement officials to crack down on the unlawful, anti-Semitic protests there. Video footage of the clash showed a surreal scene as protesting students wrestled with Department of Public Safety officers and officials from other policing agencies.
Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses.
These protesters belong in jail.
Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period.
Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled. https://t.co/XhLlQdvUl0
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 24, 2024
Likewise, violent clashes erupted at UT Austin after Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to help campus police disperse the students’ unlawful assemblies.
DPS' statement on response to protests at UT Austin. pic.twitter.com/RFHJZINcVt
— Texas DPS (@TxDPS) April 24, 2024
The DPS issued a statement confirming that Abbott empowered them to maintain the peace by any lawful means, up to and including arrest for criminal trespass and any other observed criminal conduct.
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