Top New York prosecutor says 280 people arrested at campus protests; California governor condemns UCLA violence – live

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Bragg added that his office has not determined how many arrested protesters are “outside agitators”, as city and police officials have alleged.

Bragg said that part of the DA’s investigation will be to identify those arrested and that the student-status of protestors is “certainly something we will learn as we proceed”.

Manhattan DA says about 280 people were arrested at New York campus protests

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said that approximately 280 people were arrested between protests at Columbia University and Cuny.

“There were approximately 280 total arrest from these two events,” Bragg confirmed during Wednesday’s press conference.

About 100 arrests are desk appearance tickets or for charges that will be “making their way through the system”, Bragg said.

“As my office does…we will look carefully at each individual case on our docket and make decisions based on the facts and the law,” Bragg added.

Bragg said that part of the DA’s investigation will include looking at body camera footage from Tuesday and interviewing witnesses.

Earliest arraignments for individuals will take place either later in the afternoon or in the evening, Brag confirmed.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg to hold press conference after mass arrests

The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, will be speaking at a press conference about the mass arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters on New York City campuses shortly.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Cuny students with the university’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment group have criticized New York police officers for their “brutal and spineless” arrests of protesters.

In a statement posted to X, student protesters say the encampments were peaceful and “engaged in craft workshops, teach-ins and choir performances” earlier in the day.

The students voted unanimously to remain in the encampments overnight.

The students then say that the Cuny president, Vincent G Boudreau, requested NYPD officers, who “viciously attacked” demonstrators.

“Police broke the ankle of an undergraduate student, broke the teeth of two protesters, attacked and burned many students, faculty and at least one journalist with pepper spray at close range, and beat many more with batons,” the student group said in the statement.

The student group added: “We will not be intimidated by these brutal and spineless tactics … We will not stop until these demands are met.”

Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union, has called for the release of students who have been arrested.

In a series of posts to X, Fain said the UAW “will never support the mass arrest or intimidation of those exercising their right to protest, strike, or speak out against injustice”, adding:

Our union has been calling for a ceasefire for six months. This war is wrong, and this response against students and academic workers, many of them UAW members, is wrong.

Classes remain cancelled at Portland State University in Oregon as a number of protesters continued to occupy a university library on Wednesday.

The university’s president, Ann Cudd, said the administration plans for “a return to classes and regular university operations as soon as possible”.

Protesters began occupying the library on Monday night, and have been warned by university leaders and city officials to leave or face possible charges. About 50 people left the library overnight after the administration offered not to seek criminal charges, expulsion or other discipline, AP reported.

“I urge anyone in the campus community who is able to communicate with friends, family or colleagues inside the Library, to encourage them to leave,” Cudd wrote in an email to university staff and students on Tuesday.

We are trying our best to keep everyone safe while ending this unlawful occupation of our library.

California governor Gavin Newsom condemns violence at UCLA

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has condemned the violence at UCLA last night. Posting to X, he wrote:

The law is clear: The right to free speech does not extend to inciting violence, vandalism, or lawlessness on campus. Those who engage in illegal behavior must be held accountable for their actions – including through criminal prosecution, suspension, or expulsion.

A statement from his press office criticized the “limited and delayed” law enforcement response on Tuesday night, describing it as “unacceptable”.

Jared Hoffmann, a Jewish student at the City College of New York, studying documentary filmmaking, said:

The protesters are here in support of the encampment, for SJP, Students for Justice in Palestine and I suspect they’re protesting the brutality of the war in Gaza.

[The students] certainly have strong convictions … a feeling that Zionism itself is aligned with all of the brutal oppressive powers on Earth and various political structures and they consider this an unjust war beyond any sort of any doubt.

I don’t think there’s been an enormous amount of antisemitism, but certainly you can feel within some of the anger and the zealotry of the protesters that there’s a particular zeal to protest against Israel that you might not feel in other protests. It’s a little easier to lump Israel in with KKK and the NYPD as oppressive forces perhaps and that’s connected to some antisemitism.

Eliana Basher, 19, a Jewish BA student in international studies at City University of New York said:

I’m a student. I’m here in solidarity to support the Palestinian Liberation Movement. I’m also a half-Jewish person and I’ve seen what Zionism does firsthand and how it twists the minds of individuals to make them believe that they are superior just because of the fact that they are Jewish. All these corporations in America, they are funding a genocide and I will not have my hands dirty.

Some people think that because you’re Jewish … you’re not going to be safe in these spaces but I really don’t think that’s true whatsoever. I think this is a space for everyone, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, whoever you are, white, Black, it doesn’t matter. If you are here to support this movement, you are here and that’s that.

Cuny, [are] are very obviously hoping that this ends today … they’re hoping that this will be the last of it and that we won’t try again but we’re not going to back down.

[Campus administrators] totally just disregard the fact that there’s been 30,000 or 40,000 Palestinian people killed, and they prioritize the lives of the hostages instead. Death is death. It’s all violence.

The Guardian’s Amana Fontanella-Khan spoke to a City University of New York protester, Sam Hernandez, who spoke about why she attended an action in solidarity with students.

Students are making a fair demand that the school divest from genocide. They used the police to shut them down. I saw people shoved and pushed by cops.

I haven’t seen any politicians support us and the media coverage has been biased. They want to make the protesters look like they are wrong. If you are paying tuition, you should have a right to say how your money is used. We all have a say. We all pay taxes. Standing up for what’s right isn’t a crime.”

At University of Wisconsin, Madison, police arrested scores of protesters who demonstrated against what a UN expert, students and politicians have called a genocide in Gaza.

Here are photos showing the police presence on campus:

The Guardian’s Dani Anguiano is on UCLA’s campus, speaking with students about attacks on pro-Palestinian demonstrators yesterday.

UCLA students who witnessed the moments leading up to a violent attack on pro-Palestinian protesters described a harrowing scene.

A large group of counter-protesters wearing black with white masks made their way to an encampment and began striking students with planks of wood and pepper spray, Daniel Harris, a student at the school, said on Wednesday morning.

The fourth-year student had been observing the protests in recent days and said they were largely peaceful until the violence overnight.

It was surreal seeing the masked counter-protesters march through campus, he said.

“This is stuff that only happens in movies,” he said he thought at the time.

Meghna Mair, a second-year undergraduate who said she took part in pro-Palestinian protests last week, also witnessed the masked group march through campus on their way to the encampment.

“I knew where they were going,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do. I was so sickened and horrified.”

The UCLA’s Students for Justice in Palestine have issued a statement following protesters being attacked by counter-demonstrators on Wednesday.

Protestors on UCLA’s campus have been demonstrating against what students and a UN expert have called a genocide. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s attacks in Gaza, a series of military offensives that many have called a genocide.

In a Wednesday press release, the student group wrote: “The life-threatening assault we face tonight is nothing less than a horrifying, despicable act of terror. For over seven hours, zionist aggressors hurled gas canisters, sprayed pepper spray, and threw fireworks and bricks into our encampment.”

Students added that counter-protesters broke down barriers “in an attempt to kill our community”.

The student group added: “The university’s hypocrisy [is] all too apparent, as signs of this escalation were reported, documented, and indicated early on … the university would rather see us dead than divest.”

Read the full post here.

Here’s the Guardian’s Dani Anguiano, who is reporting from UCLA’s campus.

The mood was tense around UCLA’s tree-lined campus on Wednesday, following violent clashes between protesters overnight.

A helicopter hovered overhead while groups of security guards and law enforcement stood around a sectioned off area of campus filled with tents.

Students slowed as they passed the barricades, taking in the scene.

“I think all of us are in a state of shock because of the violence,” said Noah, a UCLA law student who only felt comfortable using their first name.

UCLA cancels all classes after violence on campus

UCLA has cancelled classes for the day, after counter-protestors attacked demonstrators who were protesting what students and a UN expert has called a genocide in Gaza.

In a post to the UCLA community, school officials wrote:

The Guardian’s Amana Fontanella-Khan spoke to a Cuny faculty member at yesterday’s protest who shared why they attended an action in solidarity with students.

Vinny Djugashvili, who teaches at Cuny, said: “I’m here because it’s the only decent and reasonable thing to do.”

Asked whether he worries about professional reprisals, he says: “I’d rather not be unemployed. But if it’s between a job and conscience, you have to choose conscience every time.”

“The most amazing thing is that the students – who are mostly led by women – pose such a threat to these institutions. You have to ask what this is really about. They say it’s about antisemitism. They say it’s about freedom of speech. If you’ve been on the encampment, there were so many people of Jewish background who were there. It’s a multi-racial encampment. They say that all genocides must end. All occupations must end. That threatens something very essential to how this system works. These students have hit on something essential. These students are the most inspiring people I’ve met. I’m honored to stand by them.”

Columbia president says protesters were 'damaging property' in email defending police action

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik has sent a new email following the use of New York police to lead mass arrests at Tuesday’s protests on campus.

In an email sent Wednesday, Shafik said that New York police were used as “students and outside activists [were] breaking Hamilton Hall doors, mistreating our Public Safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property...”.

Shafik said, in part:

Over the last few months, we have been patient in tolerating unauthorized demonstrations, including the encampment. Our academic leaders spent eight days engaging over long hours in serious dialogue in good faith with protest representatives. I thank them for their tireless effort. The University offered to consider new proposals on divestment and shareholder activism, to review access to our dual degree programs and global centers, to reaffirm our commitment to free speech, and to launch educational and health programs in Gaza and the West Bank. Some other universities have achieved agreement on similar proposals.

Our efforts to find a solution went into Tuesday evening, but regrettably, we were unable to come to resolution. Because my first responsibility is safety, with the support of the University’s Trustees, I made the decision to ask the New York City Police Department to intervene to end the occupation of Hamilton Hall and dismantle the main encampment along with a new, smaller encampment. These actions were completed Tuesday night, and I thank the NYPD for their incredible professionalism and support.

New York mayor Eric Adams said about 300 people were arrested across New York campuses on Tuesday night.

Wife of convicted terrorist was not at Columbia University protests on Tuesday, despite claims from New York mayor

New York police (NYPD) are now saying the wife of a man convicted of terrorism was not at protests on Columbia’s campus on Tuesday, walking back repeated claims.

NYPD deputy commissioner Rebecca Weiner said the woman, who has yet to be publicly identified, was not apart of any protests last night, New York Daily News reported.

The New York mayor, Eric Adams, claimed that the woman was arrested along with other protesters last night, an accusation that is now being discredited.

Weiner said that the unidentified woman was on Columbia’s campus last week and that police “have no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing on her part”.

From New York Daily News reporter Chris Sommerfeldt: