UC Irvine pro-Palestinian protester arrested mid-interview

US News

From Alex Oliveira

Irvine, an anti-Israel student protester at the University of California, gave a brief interview to a local television reporter during his arrest – before being led away by police officers called to clear the school’s encampment.

“We are protesting against genocide,” the student said Fox 11 said while surrounded by a crowd of police officers.

“They suspended several of our students,” the protester said of the school.

“They broke off negotiations with us by suspending several of our students.”

Before the student or reporter could speak again, the police pulled the keffiyeh-wearing protester away from the camera.

According to the Los Angeles Times, this protester was just one of about 50 arrested at UCI on Wednesday after demonstrators barricaded themselves in a campus building and refused orders to leave campus.

In addition to students, numerous people who pretended to be teachers were arrested during the demonstration.

“These police officers out here today, these are thousands of student scholarships. “Thousands of students would have had the opportunity to go to school, have books and have a place to stay,” one woman lamented to ABC 7who claims to be a professor.

“But instead our chancellor, who is a very cruel man, decided to throw thousands of dollars worth of state funds paid for by taxpayers into the trash,” she said, referring to the police response at the crime scene.

The LA Times reported that about 200 police were dispatched to the protest, and footage from the scene showed them knocking down camp tents while breaking up the protest.

The scene even escalated into a minor argument between Irvine Mayor Farrah N. Khan and nearby Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill.

“It is a shame that peaceful protests against free speech are always met with violence. Taking up space on campus or in a building is not a threat to anyone,” Mayor Khan wrote in a post on X.

O’Neill viewed that post as a callous indictment of his own officers, who had been sent to assist with the protest after he said Irvine had specifically requested them.

“Your careless wording makes it seem like you are preemptively accusing our officers and the officers of the many law enforcement agencies that responded of violence,” O’Neill said.

“If that’s what you meant, then your message is under the mayor’s office. If this is not the case, clarify this immediately.”