Breaking News: Two Students arrested after Police swarm SJP’s “the Encampments” Screening.

LOS ANGELES — UCLA students say campus police and private security escalated tensions tonight when they confronted a film screening organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, on the one-year anniversary of the mob attack on the school’s Palestine Solidarity Encampment.

For the past week, students said, the university has been swarming with the same police officers who last year shot students with rubber bullets, hit them with batons and shoved bystanders to the ground — alongside private security accused of laughing at demonstrators who were bear maced and assaulting students.

Around 7 p.m., students began setting up a screening of The Encampments in Bruin Plaza. They said they were almost immediately confronted by about 60 UCLA Police Department officers in riot gear, who attempted to seize the equipment. Attendees marched to De Neve Plaza, an area surrounded by student housing, to continue the screening.

At about 9:05 p.m., according to witnesses, 60 officers in riot gear “violently descended” on the plaza, running into the group of students. Police on motorcycles also drove into the audience. Officers began confiscating equipment while others brandished “less lethal” guns. Two students holding the screen were detained and shoved, along with seized equipment, into a white van labeled “BruinCar” — typically used to drive students home.

The crowd chanted for their release as officers held the two students. Community members then marched onto Gayley and Le Conte avenues, heading up Westwood Boulevard to the UCPD station, where officers lined up to surround the intersection. Protesters later returned to Westwood and Le Conte, followed by police.

Students said the show of force was unjustified. “We did not witness anything that would remotely justify 60 UCPD officers in full riot gear, with batons and ‘less lethal’ weapons,” one of the student reporters there said.

Chancellor Julio Frenk later released a statement describing the event as unauthorized and disruptive. Students called the statement “cowardly” and accused Frenk of mischaracterizing the night’s events. “Since when has watching a film been an act of violence?” the group asked. “Similar unauthorized screenings are held by clubs all the time, yet they are not met with this extreme violence. Make no mistake, this was targeted because they are pro-Palestine.”

The April 30 arrests came after another student had already been detained earlier in the day, bringing the total to three.

Students said the police presence has been normalized on campus, describing it as “an invasion.” They accused officers of previously choking students on Royce Quad, shooting teaching assistants with rubber bullets and doxxing organizers.

“Unknowingly you have been walking around to your classes, making eye contact with the person who was choking your roommate… the one catcalling your friend may well be the same that attacked them mere months ago,” one of the Faculty supervisors for this event stated.

University officials did not immediately respond to questions about the arrests, the use of private security or campus policing budgets.