USC: Protesters Scuffle With Police, Campus Closed

AP Photo/Richard Vogel

Students at the University of Southern California set up a tent camp Wednesday to emulate the protest taking place at Columbia and other schools.

The encampment in Alumni Park — where the university’s main-stage commencement is scheduled to take place next month — went up before sunrise and grew into the late morning as students, wearing keffiyahs and holding “free Palestine” and “liberated zone” signs, banged drums and chanted.

“Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!” said the crowd, which billed itself in a statement as the”USC Divest from Death Coalition.”...

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Like Columbia, USC has a no camping policy and campus police informed students the tents would need to come down. 

As ever, there is nothing leftist protesters like more than shouting at the police.

The school released a statement suggesting some of the protesters were not part of the school.

“The people remain in Alumni Park — most appeared to be unaffiliated with the university,” the statement continued. “Our students, faculty and staff are allowed to express their views and have been doing so throughout the school year.”

Just before noon, things took a turn as police began clearing the camp and scuffles broke out.

But at around 11:20 a.m., campus officers began dismantling the encampments, gathering folding chairs, blankets and boxes belonging to the protesters, who then started moving their tents and belongings around to avoid confiscation.

About 30 minutes later, some demonstrators could be seen violently clashing with campus safety and LAPD officers as the crowd grew to more than 100.

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Officers appeared to be making an arrest and took out their batons to keep the crowd back.

I honestly can't tell if this is the same incident from a different angle or something else.

One person was taken to a nearby police car but students surrounded the car and refused to let it leave. Some NSFW language here.

They call this de-arresting.

Eventually, the police gave in.

Because all of this was happening, USC announced the campus was closed.

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All of this follows an earlier controversy in which the school's valedictorian was asked not to speak over controversy involving her views on Israel.


As Karen pointed out Tabassum was selected as Valedictorian from a group of about 100 people. Apparently the school didn't know or care about her views at the time which, as you can see above, called for the complete eradication of Israel.

That seems to be all of the drama at USC for now but if USC follows the pattern being set by other schools, this protest could go on until the end of the school year.

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