![Riot police arrest 50 at UC Irvine](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/59d819f1ad330b6a0539830875d4ca8709e58682/0_184_8256_4954/master/8256.jpg?width=620&dpr=2&s=none)
Hundreds of police officers in riot gear launched a crackdown on a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Wednesday at the University of California, Irvine, arresting 50 people and threatening students and faculty with batons and munitions.
Campus police and officers from across the region descended on the southern California public university after students with a Gaza solidarity encampment occupied a campus lecture hall. Photos and footage from the protest show sheriff’s deputies and other police officers grabbing students, pointing “less lethal” weapons at them and arresting students and at least one tenured professor with zip-ties.
Law enforcement officers cleared the encampment, which had been in place for more than two weeks and removed demonstrators from the building. The arrests at UC Irvine in Orange county mark the latest militarized responses to protesters in California and in campuses across the US. The crackdown follows a violent police raid and mass arrests at UCLA earlier this month.