Riot police successfully take control at UCLA, throwing away Hamas-endorsed radicals' Palestinian flag

Armored officers with the Los Angeles Police Department and California State Police took control of the illegal encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, early Thursday morning, busting through the Hamas-endorsed student radicals' barricades, flattening the occupiers' tents, and arresting some of those individuals who ignored their repeated warnings and invitations to leave.

The LAPD and other law enforcement agencies responded Tuesday night to the UCLA campus after the leftist university pleaded for help in dealing with the fallout of the same ideas taught inside its classrooms. It was not until Thursday morning that they were able to successfully overwhelm the radicals in Dickson Plaza.

Blaze News national correspondent Julio Rosas was on the scene as the pro-Hamas students, wearing masks and equipped with makeshift shields, faced off with the group of around 30 LAPD officers who initially breached the radicals' illegal encampment. The radicals can be heard taunting and castigating the officers, who had been flanked on both sides.

Rosas indicated that the outnumbered officers ultimately withdrew. As the officers gave up hard-won ground, they had to fight off elements of the frenzied mob, which pursued them out of the encampment.

"I'm not entirely sure what the reason was for them to make that first breach," Rosas told Blaze News. "But it wasn't a good one. Obviously."

Similar standoffs appear to have taken place around campus, where police apparently had difficulties making inroads largely on account of their incredible restraint.

Radicals pelted officers with rocks and attempted to disorient them with fire extinguisher blasts while desperately maintaining their barricades. The officers, in turn, used multiple flash-bangs.

Evidently growing tired of the violent, selfie-taking mob's sporadic attacks, police began to push back in a big way around 3 a.m. PT.

"That's when the California Highway Patrolmen in riot gear started to make multiple breaches at the main side of the encampment, the side with the makeshift barriers," said Rosas. "They were fighting each other. Protesters were using their bodies. They had a ton of shields and palettes and material to keep pushing up against the riot officers."

Some of the radicals attempted to form a human chain, but the police evidently found a few weak links. Rosas noted that roughly 20 of those in the chain were arrested after police kettled them.

Rosas reported that around 3:30 a.m., police began to successfully tear down the main makeshift wall bordering the illegal encampment. Upon doing so, it quickly became clear that police would soon be able to raze the encampment and clear out the remaining radicals therein.

CHP riot police advanced on the camp from other directions as well, tearing down the radicals' agitprop and pushing occupiers out of the way.

A CHP officer effectively signaled the radicals' defeat by flinging down the Palestinian flag at the heart of the illegal encampment.

Before dawn, officers effectively controlled the camp, littered with leftist propaganda and other radical refuse.

Rosas indicated that "it didn't need to come to this. ... If the encampment was cleared sooner, without giving the occupiers so much time to prepare for this, it would have been much easier for law enforcement to clear it out. But because this was allowed to take place for a while."

When asked about the rioters' initial success in repelling, Rosas suggested they "did a pretty good job at communicating with each other — to call for backup, call for materials, call for shields at different points of the border of the encampment. That's part of the reason why it took a while for police to take a significant foothold — because they were very flexible in putting manpower and material in their way."

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!