Police and pro-Palestine protesters clashed Monday night after officers tried to clear a makeshift encampment on the lawn outside the James Branch Cabell Library on VCU’s Monroe Park campus, pitching tents in what they called a “liberation zone” and demanding an immediate end to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The chaotic scene, which began at around 8:30 p.m., saw protesters build a barricade with shipping pallets and hurl water bottles and other objects at the police. Officers, some in riot gear, charged the line of demonstrators and deployed chemical agents in an effort to disperse the crowd. Police made numerous arrests and began disassembling the tents, blankets and tarps at the scene.
Read the full story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
