Timeline: How authorities cleared pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA and arrested more than 100
WESTWOOD, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Authorities removed barricades and began dismantling pro-Palestinian demonstrators' fortified encampment at UCLA early Thursday after protesters defied orders to leave.
The overnight operation involved hundreds of officers from multiple agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Here's how it unfolded.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday
The LAPD issued a citywide tactical alert, declaring the encampment to be an unlawful assembly on UCLA's Westwood campus.
Around 1:30 a.m. Thursday
When protesters refused to leave, another dispersal order was issued. Protesters defied those orders to leave as law enforcement maintained lines around the sprawling encampment near Royce Hall, not moving in just yet.
Just before 2 a.m.
Police began retreating from the encampment as about 200 protesters pushed back against several officers holding the skirmish line. The line fell, sending officers back down the stairs, some of them scuffling with protesters.
Around 2:40 a.m.
Buses arrived at the campus and dropped off hundreds of CHP officers clad in riot gear. Demonstrators tried to reinforce the barricades, to keep officers from moving in.
2:45 a.m.
CHP officers moved in, starting to rip some of the defenses out of the protesters' hands, scuffling with them. Officers brought out bright flood lights -- in what seemed to be an attempt to blind demonstrators -- on one side of Royce Hall.
On the other side of the building, officers returned to the staircase they had been pushed back from. Some students put their hands up, removing the blockade, allowing officers to get closer to the encampment.
3:15 a.m.
CHP officers in riot gear start tearing down the plywood encampment. Protesters for the most part seem to not putting up much resistance as barricades are taken down on one side of Royce Hall. On the other side of the building, protesters there blocking a different group of 100 to 200 CHP officers.
Back where the plywood was being taken down, officers appeared to be firing less-lethal rounds into the encampment and setting off smoke grenades. Holdout protestors were seen scuffling with officers.
4:30 a.m.
Officers moved fully into the encampment, tearing down structures, detaining protesters and zip-tying their wrists. More than 100 demonstrators were arrested, according to the CHP.
8:08 a.m.
In remarks delivered from the White House, President Joe Biden defended the right to protest but insisted that "order must prevail" as college campuses across the country face unrest over the war in Gaza. "Dissent is essential for democracy," he said at the White House. "But dissent must never lead to disorder."
The president also said the protests have not caused him to reconsider his approach to the war. Biden has occasionally criticized Israel's conduct but continued to supply it with weapons.
