Police in riot gear swept onto the UCLA campus Thursday and tore down makeshift barricades and a pro-Palestinian encampment that had drawn hundreds of protesters and was attacked by counterprotesters earlier this week.
The predawn crackdown at UCLA marked the latest flashpoint for protests scattered across U.S. colleges amid mounting anger over Israel's war in Gaza and growing impatience on the part of school administrators to allow disruptions they say make their campuses unsafe.
At UCLA, officers made several arrests and scuffled with student demonstrators who had enforced a strict code of no violence throughout a protest that drew several hundred people. By dawn, police had cleared the plaza of the tents and plywood walls that had formed the camp for a week, but a smaller group of protesters remained assembled just outside that area.