Tensions escalated once police entered the University of Southern California campus, according to Jonathan Park, an editor of the Daily Trojan, the college’s newspaper.
“When we saw the LAPD coming in from Vermont Avenue and working with campus officers, encircling on them, it definitely changed the mood,” Park told CNN’s Anna Coren.
Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at USC’s Alumni Park around 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday and were largely peaceful until scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators over posting signs on trees around noon, Park said.
One person was arrested but quickly released following loud chants from protesters saying to “let him go,” according to CNN correspondent Nick Watts reporting from the scene.
The Los Angeles Police Department said 93 people were later arrested on suspicion of trespassing during Wednesday’s demonstrations at USC.
Protester demands: Park said the protesters had six demands, among them an academic boycott of Israel, protecting free speech on campus, stopping displacement in Palestinian territories, no policing on campus, and calling on USC to “end the silence on the genocide and Palestine.”