LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Southern California (USC) without making arrests on May 5 following turmoil at universities across the United States over the Israel-Hamas war.

Various US universities with graduation ceremonies being held on May 5 braced for potential protests after dozens of people were arrested on campuses the previous day.

After USC requested assistance, police officers entered the encampment at about 5am and worked with the university’s Department of Public Safety to remove tents as dozens of student demonstrators peacefully left the area, police said.

USC president Carol Folt said in a statement that “the occupation was spiralling in a dangerous direction over the last several days”, leading her to call for police intervention. She said the camp was cleared peacefully, with no arrests, in 64 minutes.

Los Angeles police also said there were “no arrests, no use of force, and no injuries to officers or protesters”.

In an intervention at USC in April, police arrested 93 people without incident as demonstrators surrendered without resistance.

The experience at USC stood in contrast to confrontations at other campuses, where the protests have emerged as a political flashpoint during a contentious US election year as Democratic President Joe Biden seeks a second term in office.

Police have arrested more than 2,000 people during protests at dozens of campuses around the country.

Across town at University of California, Los Angeles, where pro-Israeli demonstrators clashed with students last week in a pro-Palestinian encampment and police arrested more than 200 people in clearing the encampment a day later, chancellor Gene Block on May 5 announced the creation of a new Office of Campus Safety and appointed a leader, former Sacramento police chief Rick Braziel, who will report directly to Mr Block.

“Our campus has been shaken by events that have disturbed this sense of safety and strained trust within our community,” Mr Block said..

The unrest led Democratic US Senator Bernie Sanders to compare campus protests to those against the Vietnam War that contributed to Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s decision not to seek re-election in 1968. “This may be Biden’s Vietnam,” Mr Sanders said.

Mr Mitch Landrieu, the national co-chair for Mr Biden’s re-election campaign, on May 5 pushed back against that comparison, calling it “an over-exaggeration”.

.“However, that is not to say that this is not a very serious matter,” Mr Landrieu said on CNN.

One heated exchange between protesters and counter-protesters at the University of Mississippi on May 2 drew widespread condemnation after a viral video showed a group of mostly white students taunting a black female protester.

One student who made apparent monkey noises and gestures at the black woman has been expelled from his fraternity.

“The racist actions in the video were those of an individual and are antithetical to the values of Phi Delta Theta,” the fraternity’s Ohio-based general headquarters said in a statement on May 5.

The university had already opened a student conduct investigation related to the incident, chancellor Glenn Boyce said on May 3.

Under mounting political pressure, Mr Biden on May 2 broke his silence on the campus unrest over the war in Gaza, saying Americans have the right to demonstrate but not to unleash violence.

Many colleges, including Columbia University in New York City, have called in police to quell protests.

Nearly 70 arrested in Chicago

Police forcibly dismantled a pro-Palestinian encampment at the Art Institute of Chicago museum on May 4 and arrested dozens of protesters, hours after demonstrators had gathered in a garden at the institute and set up tents.

Some of the demonstrators were students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the school said in a statement.

Chicago police said on social media that officers had removed the protesters at the school’s request. A Chicago Police spokesperson said on May 5 that 68 people had been arrested and charged with trespassing.

The protesters set up the encampment in the North Garden, which is part of the Art Institute of Chicago museum, at about 11am on May 4, police said.

The People’s Art Institute, organisers of the protest, said on social media that the demonstrators’ demands included that the institute formally condemn Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, remove any programmes that legitimise the “occupation of Palestine” and divest from any individuals or entities that support Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

Photos that the group uploaded to social media showed a sign in the encampment that read “Hind’s Garden”, a reference to Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in 2024 in Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The school said that it had offered protesters an alternate venue and promised students that they would not face academic sanctions or charges if they relocated there.

The statement added that some protesters “surrounded and shoved a security officer and stole their keys to the museum, blocked emergency exits and barricaded gates”.

At the University of Texas in Austin on May 5, drones deployed by police circled overhead as about 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied, with about 50 onlookers, local media reported. The speakers advised fellow demonstrators to remain peaceful and not engage the police.

Students and other protesters have called upon universities to divest their financial ties to Israel and push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military operations in Gaza, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave. The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 252 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. REUTERS, NYTIMES