How pro-Palestinian protest arrests have unfolded across college campuses
By Amy O’Kruk, Janie Boschma and Lou Robinson, CNN
Police have arrested protesters on more than 50 college campuses in at least half of the states across the country. Many other schools have experienced protests without arrests.
Pro-Palestinian protesters continue to face arrest on campus, nearly three weeks since the first arrests at Columbia University on April 18.
Most recently, DC Metropolitan Police cleared the encampment at George Washington University in Washington, DC, Wednesday morning, 13 days after it was initially set up, and arrested 33 people.
More than 2,400 people have been arrested since the initial arrests at Columbia, according to a CNN review of university and law enforcement statements.
Arrests picked up from there several days later, with police arresting more than 500 students across 13 campuses in 11 states between April 22-25. By the end of the day on Friday, May 3, there were more than 2,100 arrests on more than 40 campuses across 25 states.
New York and California lead in arrests, from multiple days of arrests across several campuses. Police arrested protesters in New York City on five separate dates, including more than 100 initial arrests at Columbia University on April 18. More than 600 people have been arrested in the state, including 44 total arrests at Stony Brook University on Long Island and at the University at Buffalo.
More than 400 people have been arrested in California. Nearly 100 people were arrested at USC in Los Angeles on April 24 and more than 200 were arrested across town at UCLA a week later. About 35 protesters were arrested at Cal Poly Humboldt in northern California, and 64 were arrested at the University of California, San Diego.
Of the more 2,400 people arrested, CNN was able to confirm with officials how many are students or are people otherwise affiliated with the university — such as faculty and staff — for about two-thirds of those arrested, roughly 1,600 people.
Students and other university-affiliated people represented more than half of those arrests. Those unaffiliated with the university, including former students, community members and those with unknown affiliations made up the remaining 46% of arrests.
Protests continue to disrupt classes, final exams and spring commencement ceremonies. After last week’s clashes and more than 200 arrests at UCLA, the campus canceled classes for several days. On Monday, Columbia announced it would cancel its May 15 commencement and instead host smaller, relocated events. USC had previously canceled its primary commencement event after nearly 100 protesters were arrested April 24.
The-CNN-Wire
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CNN’s Alex Leeds Matthews, Renée Rigdon, Krystina Shveda, Matt Egan and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report
