'Unbelievably Dangerous': Journalist Describes Chaotic Scenes At Site Of UCLA protest

[Music] last night saw a violent raid executed against anti-war protesters at UCLA unlike the raids that happened in New York City however this time the violence came from pro-israel protesters the pro-israel mob was videotaped grabbing a pro Palestine protester throwing him to the ground and beating him in widely circulated footage vide shows that at one point a large firework was fired into the crowd Pro Zionist protesters also launched tear gas were filmed spraying chemical agents like skunk on protesters and launched other projectiles which hit the po pro peace students one pro Israel counter-protester was recording shout recorded shouting second knba referring to the violent displacement of 700,000 Palestinians from their Homeland upon the founding of Israel police eventually showed up on the University of California Los Angeles's campus last night after Pro Palestinian protesters at the school accused the pro-israel group of carrying out a terror attack on them UC divest said quote the life-threatening assault we fac tonight is nothing less than a horrifying despicable Act of Terror in a previous statement the group said the quote Zionist aggressors who were not UCLA students were verbally and physically harassing them police are tearing down Pro Palestinian encampments at the University of Wisconsin this morning two days after the student protest began University Police gave the students at the encampment a warning to evacuate before 7 a.m. and they began to remove the tents and take students into custody now here to discuss the events at UCLA last night is journalist Jack Ross who covered the protest and counter-protest on the ground thank you so much for waking up early and joining us on East Coast time Jack yeah thanks for having me all right tell us what you saw I saw that you posted on Twitter late last night to reporters writing this up this was a unilateral surprise attack by Zionist encampment residents were eating lentils and sitting around suddenly reports of men in plastic white masks at the G what what what what happened yeah I was interviewing um a member of the encampment um when you know we were literally talking about how the the situation had kind of turned into a war zone each night and how um the uh pro-israel protesters were playing you know videos from the October 7th attacks on a massive Jumbotron kind of engaged in a in a campaign of sound harassment that was relentless um they were at that moment playing you know the sound of a crying baby over and over and over and again um they've been you know um kind of storming the encampment at night for the previous few nights um all of a sudden you know we hear reports that there's men in white plastic masks trying to get in everyone runs to the front of the encampment and it was chaos I mean my memories are are you know just of people shouting get down get down there was um spray everywhere we were all quickly drenched in liquids we couldn't tell what they were we smelled like skunk very quickly um there was a person next to me hacking and you know um yelling that their eyes were burning and that they um their throat was on fire and then someone yelled get down and a metal pole whizzed over our heads you know so that kind of forced us all against the the barricades which meant then that we were closer to the um pro-israel protesters who were spraying you know all sorts of chemicals um and then maybe a couple minutes into this a firework flew over our heads um and exploded right behind us and when I say firework I mean the kind of firework that they set off after baseball games um you know it had a 20 foot blast radius it was incredibly loud um and uh you know very quickly I I was worried for everyone's safety very very quickly so that that's how it started um from there um you know the protesters were extremely disciplined the the pro Palestine protesters um they did not fight back they did not you know throw bottles um throw polls or anything it was about holding the line against um this mob that we quickly saw had had grown to about 200 people oh wow I didn't realize it was that big what if anything do we know about who comprised the group of pro-israel protesters I think we know very little um you know they were wearing masks um they were um you know their identities are slowly kind of being um piece together online but I think what is clear is that many were not students um you know they were older than um 30 40 in some cases you know u i I hate to say it but I I I think I saw a lot of high school students out there too um you know some people looked quite young um and it's possible that they were students I suppose um but you know a lot of adults I would say at least half you know people who were who were kind of visibly not College age there have been reports and videos of some of the pro Palestinian um students having set up um a barricade areas of Campus where um where there is now video of Jewish or pro-israel students being disallowed from entering um this space um I think that also took place at the library can you speak to what you've seen in respect to that absolutely so the encampment had very strict rules about who could enter and it was not um you know religious based in any capacity it wasn't about identity it was about if you could had someone inside the encampment who could vouch for you um then you could go inside so they they quickly you know they took over almost the you know a full portion of Roy quad um which incidentally is outside where Angela Davis you know lectured to about 2,000 students in 1969 when she was fired uh for being a communist at UCLA um but so it's that that's the quad you know this historic quad is totally blocked off um and no no one can get it um you know unless you know someone who's in there and that's for security reasons um they let in faculty I believe last night and then a couple of um Zionist counter protesters snuck in hid in tents and then emerged in the middle of the night shaking tents and screaming about evacuating you know scaring really scaring people um and I'm I'm told you know um by a source in the camp that quote um you know a wonderful fem tiny fem was wandering around the camp telling people this is a scop calm down they're trying to um they're trying to alarm us this was the the night prior to last night so um they're they're very concerned about who gets in the camp and and it's not based on Identity or or belief so much as as safety can you tell me a little bit more about how the protest in the counter protest evolved at one point the police came in what role they played and how it ended up sort of resolving by the end of the night yeah so for hours um there was no security and there were no police there was simply a mob of about 200 um zionists with um hes fireworks bear mace uh skunk um and throwing bottles at uh this you know this crowd of of student protesters no one to separate them there were security standing um to the side watching um and as soon as the campus security correct um it was quite clear you know for just as the violence went on and on and on a reporter next to me kept saying someone is going to die someone is going to die someone is going to die over and over again because it was unbelievably dangerous um we were watching assaults you know I keep seeing reports of at least one firework uh th you know sent into the encampment I'm here to say that it was at least four one is short of the real number I you know I I ducked and um had at least three explode near me in the opening you know 20 minutes it felt like um but yeah no uh law enforcement completely absent uh there was you know what felt you know there had been instructions for hours clearly you know that um no one was going to intervene and the the protesters um the prop Palestine protesters were were saying um you know this it's that it was clear what was happening to them which was that UCLA was trying to let the zionists clear the ENC on their behalf so are you saying that the pro Palestinian protesters would have welcomed a heightened or more robust police presence to deal with this I think they wanted any help that they could get obviously that's a complicated question and you know I didn't talk to anyone about how um they felt at the time about that question what was clear was that they needed someone to stand in between um the two sides and um no one was willing to do that you know on I was there on Sunday and that's what campus security was doing there was quite a lot of um Security in you know on bikes um separating the two sides and it was a really important thing to do um you know that situation on Sunday where you know there was there was a large um pro-israel counter protest um you know could have easily spiraled out of control as well but security kept it um controlled and and they were completely missing last night and were actually seen running from the site when it you know when the the action began oh so you're saying that Not only was campus police were campus police present in choosing to not intervene but that they were actually spotted fleeing the scene as the escalation took place correct um you know reporter I I missed this U myself because I was in the um chaos of the encampment but um a a colleague of mine at a paper I write for La public press his name is Joey Scott um he said you know they they saw you know they were outside and they saw um uh the the security that had been present you know there's there's a pretty um robust security presence on campus around um this encampment and he saw them all take off and run um as soon as the the pro Israel faction arrived incredible stuff Jack Ross thank you so much for joining us and giving us this on the ground insight into what took place last night at UCLA I look forward to continuing to follow your coverage online and Beyond thanks again thank [Music] you thanks so much that was really helpful

Channel: The Hill

Views: 65,557

Keywords: Rising, Progressive, Progressive Politics, Democrats, Democratic Party, Republicans, GOP, Republican Party, Columbia, Palestine, Israel, Campus Protests, NYPD, New York, Gaza, UCLA, Protesters, Oct. 7, Sound Harassment, Encampment

Id: h-lAC21q-oY

Length: 11min 53sec (713 seconds)

Published: Wed May 01 2024