An afternoon march and rally Thursday involving some 2,800 students and faculty at California State University, Northridge, turned into a tense evening standoff as protesters blocked off a major intersection and defied dispersal orders from officers in riot gear.Police arrested at least five students, while a 73-year-old faculty member had to be treated for a broken arm when she was pushed to the ground.The march was part of a nationwide “Day of Action” in which thousands of teachers, professors, students and parents joined rallies, sit-ins and marches to protest steep cuts in public education.
At most other locations, the demonstrations were peaceful, except at UC Davis, where students engaged in a standoff with police, at UC Santa Cruz, where students broke car windows, and in Wisconsin, where demonstrators threw punches and ice chunks at police, leading to the arrest of at least 15 people.
At CSUN, protesters blocked off several sections of Reseda Boulevard, and some defied orders from police to disperse.
Karren Baird-Olson, a 73-year-old Native American studies professor, was standing in solidarity with her students, who had formed a human chain at Reseda Boulevard and Prairie Avenue when police rushed the crowd to disperse them. She was tossed to the ground and broke her arm in the fall.
“The First Amendment gives us the right to assemble and demonstrate,” Baird-Olson said. “That is not a privilege.
It is a right. This is supposed to be a place where voices are heard.”Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese, head of the Valley Bureau, said.