Arrests at Cal Poly Humboldt after protesters take over campus buildings
ARCATA, Calif. - About 25 people were arrested early Tuesday morning during the pro-Palestine protests at Cal Poly Humboldt, as university officials said they were working hard to restore order.
The school's campus has been shut down since last week after protesters took over a university building.
University police put out a shelter in place alert due to what they described as "continuing criminal activity."
At about 2:30 a.m., a coalition of police officers from all over the state, including San Francisco, went in to clear and secure the buildings occupied by the protesters.
They arrested about two dozen people, according to video posted to Instagram by The Lumberjack, an independent, student-run newspaper.
The university says students will face code of conduct violations and faculty could face disciplinary action.
Adelmi Ruiz, a local TV journalist, who studied at San Francisco State was reporting live on her station's Facebook page, when officers detained her at the scene.
Video shows that the police told her to put her phone in her pocket and her hands behind her back.
"Wait, I'm press," she said.
Police responded: "You had an opportunity to leave."
"But I can't.," she said. "My job has me here all night."
Police: "Find a different job."
Ruiz said she lost one of the phones she was using to gather news and transmit her story to her station's Facebook page. "That second phone actually ended up being swept away as well," said Ruiz. "As I was moving my hands behind my back, it slipped out of my pocket and I couldn't get it, obviously. The officers couldn't get it. So, there is a piece of news equipment out there at Cal Poly Humboldt right now."
Ruiz said she was on campus long enough to see authorities begin to detain the protesters. "At first they were detaining the people that were out in the quad," said Ruiz. "Those were the first people that got detained."
A statement from university president Tom Jackson Jr. reads in part: "This is a difficult day, it breaks my heart to see it, and truly nobody wanted to see things come to this. We’ve all watched this with great concern, and always with the sincere hope that it would be resolved peacefully. Unfortunately, serious criminal activity that crossed the line well beyond the level of a protest had put the campus at ongoing risk."
The university campus will stay on its hard closure until May 10.
Police say those arrested will face charges ranging from unlawful assembly, vandalism, and assault on police officers.
A similar scene played out across the country at Columbia University in New York early Tuesday.
Dozens of protesters took over a building at the university, barricading the entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag out of a window in the latest escalation of demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war that have spread to college campuses nationwide.
Protesters on Columbia’s Manhattan campus locked arms in front of Hamilton Hall early Tuesday and carried furniture and metal barricades to the building, one of several that was occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest, video footage showed.
Posts on an Instagram page for protest organizers shortly after midnight urged people to protect the encampment and join them at Hamilton Hall. A "Free Palestine" banner hung from a window.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
