Man drove car toward protesters at Oregon university, sprayed ‘some kind of pepper spray’: Police

BY LAUREN IRWIN 

 05/03/24 

A man drove his car toward a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters at Portland State University (PSU) in Oregon and sprayed a chemical agent like pepper spray before running away, police said Thursday night.

Police had clashed with protesters, arresting at least 30 people during a sweep of the university’s library after it had been occupied for several days.

Tensions came to a head Thursday when protesters refused to leave the campus area and overtook the campus building for the second time. Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officers detailed their operation on social platform X throughout the day.

According to a PPB post, university police “located the driver of a car who stopped near the crowd and sprayed some kind of pepper spray earlier this afternoon.”

“The adult male was transported to a local hospital on a police mental health hold,” PPB said.

The Hill has reached out to Portland State University and PPB for more information about the man who was driving the car.

It appeared that the car was then vandalized, its windows broken and items scattered nearby, a report by KATU2 said.

Why are college students protesting?

Officers began their operation to clear the campus library around 6 a.m. Thursday. PPB said officers were doing a “slow, methodical clear of the building” and experienced barricades at several points, mostly piled up furniture, and slippery floors “intended to cause police to slip and fall.”

Police also shared photos online of the inside of the building graffitied and tools that appeared to be “improvised weapons, ball bearings, paint balloons, spray bottles of ink, and DIY armor.” None of it was used on police, they said.

Later Thursday, police confirmed that trespassers pulled down a fence around the library and reentered the building. More arrests were made, including people who refused to leave the outdoor area next to the library.

The PSU protests mirror those happening on college campuses across the country, as students and community members call on their institutions to divest from Israeli companies or companies that supply weapons to Israel in its war against Hamas.

More than 2,000 arrests have been made nationwide since the college encampments began. At Columbia University, hundreds of police dressed in riot gear moved onto the campus after protesters occupied one of the campus buildings.

Rutgers University agrees to most of students' conditions in exchange for breaking up their sit-in

[03/May/2024] NEW YORK May 03. 2024 (Saba) - Rutgers University in the US state of New Jersey agreed to a number of demands of demonstrators who held a sit-in in the heart of the university. According to local media reports on Friday, the university chose to sit with a team of students to negotiate instead of calling the New Jersey police to the university campus, as happened at Columbia University in New York, and the university administration informed students to agree to eight conditions out of ten, on the condition of dispersing the sit-in, and then negotiating the remaining two conditions, which was met with the approval of the students and the dispersal of their sit-in. The two conditions, which have not yet been approved by the university, are the withdrawal of investments from companies or military institutions that participate or benefit from the Zionist enemy entity, in addition to stopping the university's partnership with Tel Aviv University. The applications approved by the university included: - Accepting at least ten students from Gaza to study at Rutgers University on a full scholarship. - Providing the necessary resources for Palestinian and Arab students at the Arab Cultural Center in both university buildings. Granting full amnesty to all students, professors, and employees who used their right under Article I of the Constitution to demonstrate against the university's support for Israel. - Naming Palestine and the Palestinians in all communication related to Zionist attacks on Palestinians, and that the President of the League issue a statement recognizing the genocide towards the Palestinians and its impact on the Palestinian community in the University, and that the President of the University push for a ceasefire. The university agrees to appoint additional professors specializing in Palestinian and Middle Eastern studies, and to find a path to establish a department for Middle Eastern studies. Appointing an administrative supervisor who has cultural knowledge of Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims, and who is familiar with how to confront Islamophobia and racism towards Palestinians. - Issuing an educational memorandum of understanding establishing a long-term partnership with Birzeit University. - Raising the flags of peoples under occupation, such as the Palestinian flag and the flag of Kurds and Kashmiri in all areas where the flags of countries are raised. Rutgers University students consider this a positive gesture from the university administration, and can be built with to achieve the remaining two conditions, especially in light of the fraught circumstances that many sit-ins faced in different parts of the United States. Rutgers University is one of the largest universities in New Jersey.