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Columbia protest escalates with campus building takeover - BBC News Columbia protest escalates with campus building takeover - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Around the same time that Donald Trump was calling on President Biden to make a statement - the White House was doing just that. Pro-Palestinian protesters had occupied a major administrative building at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, for the past week, forcing the small campus north of San Francisco to close until 10 May.
Through statements, the president said that overtaking Hamilton Hall was "absolutely the wrong approach". But overnight, local law enforcement moved in to clear their encampment, making about 35 arrests.
Biden has stood against "repugnant, antisemitic smears and violent rhetoric" his whole life, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, and he was disturbed of reports of hate speech on display in recent days. The charges range from vandalism to unlawful assembly, with disciplinary action likely to follow for student participants.
Biden "respects the right to free expression", Bates said, but protests have to be "peaceful and lawful". In a statement on its website, the university said it had made "repeated efforts" to resolve the protest.
"Forcibly taking over building is not peaceful it is wrong," Bates added. "What was occurring was not free expression or a protest. It was criminal activity, and there were serious concerns it would spread even further on campus."
"And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America." University president Tom Jackson Jr said: “This is a difficult day, it breaks my heart to see it, and truly nobody wanted to see things come to this."
The White House also said it is unaware of any evidence of "bad actors" among the pro-Palestinian protesters.
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