'Order must prevail', says Joe Biden as riot police crack down on pro-Palestine ... trends now
In the end, it took rubber bullets and 'flash bang' grenades to dislodge the keffiyeh-clad hardcore, as police finally ended a week-long pro-Palestinian protest encampment in Los Angeles yesterday.
Several hundred demonstrators equipped with white hard hats, goggles and respirator masks were in a stand-off throughout Wednesday night against even larger ranks of similarly outfitted riot police at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
President Biden insisted yesterday that 'order must prevail' on campuses after protests over the Gaza conflict had spread to more than 50 universities across the country.
He addressed the crisis for the first time in a week, insisting there was 'the right to protest but not the right to cause chaos'.
Mr Biden is walking an electoral tightrope between offending Jewish and more moderate voters by not coming down hard on illegal and reportedly anti-Semitic protests, and alienating younger and Muslim voters by being too supportive of Israel.
An LAPD officer in the midst of a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
Police clash with protesters equipped with white hard hats, goggles and respirator masks on the university campus
Protestors wearing protective clothing including goggles line up alongside each other with makeshift shields made of plastic and plywood in the clash with police
However, he said: 'Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It's against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations, none of this is a peaceful protest.'
The UCLA demonstrators, who had fought with pro-Israel counter-protesters on Tuesday night, linked arms as they formed a line and squared up to police.
Others used makeshift shields and even beach umbrellas – which in southern California are in plentiful supply – to fend off the officers, as well as throwing water bottles and fireworks.
Some reportedly even used anti-bear spray – which chokes and blinds its targets – and fire extinguishers. One student was furiously screaming at the advancing policemen to leave as 'this is a 'f***ing school . . . we f***ing learn'.
However, for all their foul-mouthed defiance and unbending demands for an end to the war in Gaza, the most combustible of the pro-Palestinian protests that have convulsed US
