Authorities must carefully weigh their response to the protests, experts say.
Police face-off with pro-Palestinian students after destroying part of the encampment barricade on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, May 2, 2024.over the war in Gaza, law enforcement from coast to coast is being tasked with carrying out a complex choreography: How to protect the constitutional right to free speech, while navigating volatile and potentially unsafe social unrest.
"You can't go willy nilly, you want to act as a unit, you need decisive action – not a preemptive strike," said Robert Boyce, an ABC News contributor and retired chief of detectives in the New York Police Department. In New York, as police worked to clear protesters who had occupied Columbia's Hamilton Hall, an officer accidentally discharged his gun, as he transitioned it to his non-dominant hand to unlock an office door, Assistant Chief Carlos Valdez, the commanding officer of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit, said Friday. There were no injuries and the bullet was contained within the vacant office, Valdez said, adding the shot "was purely unintentional.
The primary objective is to prevent conditions from escalating into destructive or violent activity, experts say. But sometimes authorities can't fully control these events and they will escalate."Law enforcement will try to ensure that those situations are handled in a surgical way, that they don't spread," said John Cohen, the former intelligence chief at the Department of Homeland Security, now an ABC News contributor.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Man armed with knife fatally shot by police in Wilshire Center area, authorities sayA man who police say was armed with a knife and confronted officers responding to a mental health call in the Wilshire Center area was fatally shot Thursday.
Read more »
Authorities arrest suspect in killing of Chicago Police Officer Luis HuescaXavier Tate Jr. was found Wednesday night in Glendale Heights, Illinois.
Read more »
Police shot and killed armed student outside Wisconsin school, authorities sayAmtrak crews say they entered the second phase of their major track repair project two weeks ahead of schedule.
Read more »
Police shot and killed armed student outside Wisconsin school, authorities sayStrong storms, flooding potential overnight
Read more »
Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, police shot and killed armed student outside middle school, authorities sayPolice shot and killed a Wisconsin student outside a middle school after receiving a report of someone with a weapon, the state's attorney general said in the first law enforcement briefing on an incident that sent children fleeing amid gunfire.
Read more »
Authorities say police killed armed student outside Wisconsin middle school, no others hurtAuthorities say police killed armed student outside Wisconsin middle school, no others hurt
Read more »