UC Irvine professor goes on unhinged rant after arrest at encampment

Multiple law enforcement agencies in southern California cleared out the anti-Israel encampment that was set up on Wednesday at the University of California, Irvine. The occupiers not only set up a zone on campus but also took over a nearby building, prompting the massive police response.

Police made many arrests during the clearing operation, with one of them apparently including a tenured professor in the global studies department.

As the woman was being led away by police, she went on a rant to members of the press.

"I'm doing a democratic peaceful protest! Shame on them!" the professor said.

"Why are you here today?" a reporter asked.

""We cannot have a genocidal foreign policy in a democracy," the woman replied. "These young people are going to be the ones to pay the price for these horrible decisions. These police officers out here today, that's thousands of student scholarships! Thousands of students could've been able to go to school and have books and have housing!"

'I was prepared to allow a peaceful encampment to exist on the campus without resorting to police intervention.'

When asked if she is concerned her arrest will jeopardize her job, she replied, "What job do I have if the students don't have a future!"

UC Irvine professor detained at pro-Palestinian protest speaks outwww.youtube.com

Chancellor Howard Gillman released a statement after the chaotic day explaining he had hoped to avoid having to have police come to campus, but the building takeover went too far.

"I was prepared to allow a peaceful encampment to exist on the campus without resorting to police intervention, even though the encampment violated our policies and the existence of the encampment was a matter of great distress to other members of our community. I communicated that if there were violations of our rules we would address them through the normal administrative policies of the university and not through police action," Gillman explained.

"And so after weeks when the encampers assured our community that they were committed to maintaining a peaceful and nondisruptive encampment, it was terrible to see that they would dramatically alter the situation in a way that was a direct assault on the rights of other students and the university mission," he added.

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