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Violent Clashes Between Final Protest Groups On UCLA Campus; NYPD: Columbia University Cleared, Dozens Arrested. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 01, 2024 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:00:38]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Five a.m. here on the East Coast.

Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. I'm Kasie Hunt.

We have breaking news. Violent clashes ongoing at UCLA between pro- Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters. This after school officials declared the protest encampment there illegal and has increased security on campus. Video from the scene. You can see protesters throwing a wooden pallet, fireworks parking cones, even a scooter.

These clashes have been ongoing for hours with minimal police intervention, but the chancellor of UCLA has now asked for the LAPD's assistance. A spokesman for the L.A. mayor tweeting a short time ago, quote, LAPD is responding immediately to Chancellor Block's request for support on campus.

Joining me now to discuss, CNN senior national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, good morning.

From what we can tell from the pictures coming out of UCLA, we don't know that police are involved in the clashes there at this point, but we do have a tweet, just a few moments ago from the LAPD HQ that says that the request of UCLA, due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment on their campus, the LAPD is responding to assist UCLA PD and other law enforcement agencies to restore order and maintain public safety.

So, of course, we are seeing it seems a clear risk fonts here, but this has taken some time.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. And it shouldn't. I have been arguing the last couple of weeks. Look, whatever our politics are, these universities and colleges have a responsibility to protect all students, including those who are protesting so long as the post-it protest is lawful, which we've had in this case at UCLA.

UCLA was sort of ratcheting up its potential actions against the protesters in anticipation of a graduation, I think they wanted to clear it out. But they weren't there yet. So in the meanwhile, it appears just based on what were seeing so far, it's still early that the protesters, the Palestinian protesters or protesters for the Palestinian cause were left relatively vulnerable for others to come in and attack them.

It's that kind of vulnerability that law enforcement and colleges and universities have to get serious about now as well as these temperatures are increasing between the two sides. And I can't honestly -- I can't believe how exposed they appear just from the pictures and then its taken this long to get the LAPD in or to get a request in. This is -- this is -- this was avoidable. Had there been just a security perimeter around these protesters?

HUNT: Yeah. When you say you can't believe how exposed this, or can you just expand on that? I mean, what do you mean by that?

KAYYEM: So, look, at the protest is just a natural part of colleges and universities. And as I -- as I've been making clear for the most part, throughout the United States, these protests have been going on, peaceably -- peacefully without a lot of conflict, with a lot, a lot, without a lot of the drama that said we saw at Columbia, and now, we're seeing at UCLA, and part of that was because it was treated as a vulnerability for these colleges and universities.

So they would secure perimeters, allow protesters two exert their first amendment rights to complain about what about policy? Is whether Israelis are the United States that was manageable. But it requires a security protection and perimeter around these kinds of protests because we know that others, counterproposal may go after them.

And so, it just in terms of my surprise, UCLA, actually the truth is UCLA have been really a great job. As I looked across the nation about what schools were and weren't heating up, UCLA was not hitting up ledger. They'd handled the protests successfully.

They'd worked with student groups. They had been able to relatively isolate even the encampments now, but they did not secure the perimeter sufficiently. We'll find out what kind of security they had beforehand then now have to now have to ratchet up all in calling the LAPD.

[05:05:04]

So, Juliette, the other development we had overnight, of course, was that over at Columbia, the NYPD went in, to Hamilton Hall to clear that out, using some distraction flash bangs and then going into the building.

And Columbia had this to say, they said, quote, after the university learned overnight that Hamilton hall had been occupied vandalizing, blockaded. We were left with no choice.

And then they say this. We believe that the group that broke into an occupied the building is led by individuals who are not affiliated with the university. I'm curious. First, how they learn this. I guess it comes in the context of arrest,

but also what it says about the protests there and what questions we should be asking about what's going on at UCLA?

KAYYEM: Exactly. So, there have been some disputes about that that representation. We know that the student reporters at Columbia sort of pushing back on that narrative that is being disclosed by Columbia University. Regardless, the arrest will tell us who in fact was in the building. This will be true at UCLA.

So, once again, these are if you can just take the emotions out of this, as we should, these are simply security vulnerabilities that colleges and universities and local police have every capacity to be able to secure beforehand. So that that gets to something called access control. UCLA used to live right next door to UCLA.

It is -- it would be hard to do access control in all areas of UCLA, but you can certainly do it in areas where there are in encampments or protesters. And these outsiders who may, depending on their number, who come in, are obvious the motivated not simply by their desire to make an issue, but to use the college or university as a focal point for their own activism, that the college or university owes them those outsiders, nothing. But - there's always a but, we delude ourselves. Or we shouldn't think that its only the outsiders.

These are for the most part because I've been working on this issue throughout the country now in terms of college universities for the most, these are student-led movements. They represent something that students feel very passionately about. It represents divisions within the United States population at large and colleges have to really think about the kind of outdoor one allowed their students in terms of protests while protecting them both from outsiders, but also now counter protestors that were seeing at UCLA.

We've been my personal feeling is we've been a little bit too shy, colleges and universities about using law enforcement appropriately, not to condemn the protests but to protect First Amendment speech and students who might feel vulnerable because of these protests.

HUNT: Yeah, well, and of course we saw in Columbia tried to avoid it because it was seen escalatory initially, but then as we saw, they decided that again, I think you made some important distinctions. We want to continue to make those distinctions between students who were peacefully protesting, something that they believe strongly in people who are engaged in harassment violence, vandalism, et cetera.

Juliet Kayyem -- Juliette, thank you very much.

Alright. Coming up here, we're going to have more on New York City police clearing Columbia's campus and removing protesters from Hamilton Hall. And we're going to live on the ground there.

And while you were sleeping, a near-total abortion ban took effect in the state of Florida.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:13:04]

HUNT: Welcome back.

We're monitoring violence is broken out among protesters at UCLA. But meanwhile, in New York, an uneasy calm has come over Columbia University this morning after police cleared the campus of protesters there. The NYPD says more than 100 protesters were arrested last night at Columbia and the City College of New York. Most of the arrests were made at Columbia and that includes about two dozen protesters who police say tried to prevent officers from entering the campus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looks like they've opened the window, they got in. They got in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Late last night, the NYPD was able to enter Hamilton Hall, as you can see there through a second floor window. That's the building, the pro-Palestinian demonstrators. I have occupied since early Tuesday morning once they were inside, officers were able to sweep the building where the bulk of last nights arrests were made.

CNN law enforcement reporter Mark Morales is outside the Columbia campus this morning.

Mark, can you take us through what the scene is like on campus right now?

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Well, good morning, Kasie. And if you're out here, you notice what you mentioned this calm that's out here. Behind me, you'll see a couple of NYPD vehicles. You'll see some officers standing guard.

But this is a stark difference from what this was like just a few short hours ago. Every inch of pavement here was covered with a student or a demonstrator. And when you thought that there was no more room, you just see scores of more. NYPD officers showing up wearing riot gear. You'd see these big armored vehicles.

What you really saw was the muscle of the NYPD showing up. And this was really the culmination of for all the stress, all the anxiety, all the wondering of when Columbia was finally going to call the NYPD, and that happened a few short hours ago.

And like you said, it took the NYPD just under two hours, two get into Hamilton Hall, clear the building, clear the encampment.

[05:15:03]

And while that was happening, they were also clearing an encampment nearby City College of New York. Now, for the entire evening, all together, they're law enforcement sources were telling following me that there were over 100 arrests. That number is expected to increase. And what you really saw here was tactical job done by the NYPD where they entered in at multiple entry points, including through the window here at Hamilton Hall where they were able to get in.

And part of that strategy was what they call shock and awe, and to show so much force and intimidation patients. So that they wouldn't have any of the protesters that were inside that would think to attack them or start some sort of a scuffle.

And that seems to have worked because the arrests that were the protesters, people that were taken into custody, there seems to be no injuries, no scuffles like that. We are expected to hear from New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD officials this morning at a press conference, 9:00 a.m.

The last we heard from them yesterday, they were talking about out how there was this professional agitator, professional demonstrator element that was mixed in with a lot of these students. And from what law enforcement sources of told me, there was a heavy presence of people that were not affiliated with the university as part of this demonstration -- Kasie.

HUNT: Mark, I know Columbia has asked for this presence to remain through graduation. What kind of thought has to go into that in terms of preventing what you were just outlining, it sounds like they successfully avoided significant clashes with the police last night.

It does -- there is a period of time here before commencement.

MORALES: Right. And that's all by design. The last time that this encampment was cleared, it didn't take very long for another encampment to come around and take shape within the university. And that's really what they want to avoid because the last think the university and the last thing frankly, anybody wants is for another seem like last night to play out again.

HUNT: All right. Mark Morales for us in New York -- Mark, thank you very much.

All right. Coming up next, we're going to have more on a breaking news, chaos erupts on the campus of UCLA as protests are in violent overnight. We're going to hear from a student there, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:21:51]

HUNT: Welcome back.

Let's get back now to our breaking news out of Los Angeles, the LAPD have now arrived on the campus of UCLA and we have new video just in showing the force of the officers standing just outside the encampment. They have not moved in yet.

These are live images from the scene for several hours now violent clashes have been ongoing between rival protest group groups, counter protesters arriving just before midnight, trying to take down a pro- Palestinian encampment.

An editor with "The Daily Bruin" at UCLA explained to CNN how things escalated from there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DYLAN WINWARD, FEATURES AND STUDENT LIFE EDITOR, THE DAILY SUN: There has been some pushing and shoving and policy evenings. We know that paramedics were called, but it's the first time that we've seen anything like what were seeing on the scale as evening, it's also the first time this evening that campus security, there are about 30 hired security people on the site have withdrawn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: CNN's Max Foster just spoke with that student from UCLA in the past hour and he joins us now, live in London.

Max, good morning to you.

As you have been covering this, what else did we hear from that student who clearly was in their dorm room, as you conceive, it seemed familiar with what was going on.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're trying to get a sense of what was going on. And he was describing what we were seeing in the pictures. He said it was very violent on the ground, he had to withdraw his reporters from the scene. They talked about pepper spray being coming from encampment towards the counter-protesters who were trying to pull those barriers down.

A lot of concern, a lot of tension, not a concern that it could blow up into something at any moment. We also spoke to a report on the ground. He said he was surprised no one had been injured or killed up until this point, which does raise the question, why aren't the police there?

So, Dylan Winward described how the universe as California has its own police force if they want to bring in the LAPD, they need to invite them in. They had done that hours before but the LAPD, hadn't arrived eventually, of course, they did arrive. So that's a very good sign, but who's in this counter group?

We have seen those pro-Israeli flags, but I asked Dylan about exactly who he thought made up the entirety of that group.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINWARD: We know very little about the counter protesters, lots of them have shown up heavily masked, are wearing balaclavas as well. We know that in recent evenings this week, many of the counter-protests that have shown up overnight have showed up with Israeli flags and have promised to come back. But we also know that they were at various points chanting "USA" this evening as well. So we just don't know who they are. That the university earlier today, threatened to arrest any outside

actors who came to campus. We believe that many of the counter protesters who were on campus now and who are throwing those fireworks aren't members of the university community as well. So that could feature into the police response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: So we know how this all started, don't we, Kasie? It was a pro-Palestinian groups trying to support the people of Gaza, but the longer it goes on, the more it blows up, and more people are involved. And that's why people are saying the police really need to get a handle on this.

[05:25:02]

HUNT: Right. Well, and the violence that we've seen over the course of tonight has been a particularly troubling, the focus, of course can continue to be there.

Max Foster for us in London -- Max, thank you very much for that.

FOSTER: Thank you, Kasie.

HUNT: Coming up next here, dueling demonstrations as we've been discussing, facing off at UCLA with tensions escalating to a dangerous level.

Plus, a near total abortion ban now in effect in the state of Florida.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Back now to our breaking story out of.