Portland State University reopened its campus Friday, a day after police removed pro-Palestinian protesters who had been in the university’s main library for several days.
A small group of protesters returned to Millar Library on Thursday evening, hours after police had cleared the building, and this led to more arrests. Between the two operations, police arrested 30 people, the Portland Police Bureau said.
Police arrested three people inside the library, including one who they said deployed a fire extinguisher against them. The rest of the occupiers fled the library. One of them tried to hit an officer with a shield and was arrested, police said.
Police said a “hostile” crowd surrounded a police van carrying suspects as it tried to leave the campus the first time Thursday and then followed it, prompting more arrests.
Of the 12 people arrested Thursday morning, four were students, Portland State University said in a statement.
Portland State University work crews put up a fence around the library after police left Thursday morning. Not long after, some people returned, tore down the fence and broke into the library again, the bureau said. Police returned and, in the ensuing operation, made eight more arrests. One of those arrests was made by a Portland State University officer.
The bureau did not release the names of those arrested.
Portland State University announced Thursday afternoon that the campus would be open the following day and confirmed the decision Friday morning. The library, however, remains closed.
“The occupiers not only extensively vandalized the exterior and interior walls, but they stole some of our valuable collection and equipment,” PSU President Ann Cudd said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the university wouldn’t confirm what pieces of the library’s collections are missing, if any, saying in an email that it will “take quite a while” to catalog the extent of what was damaged or stolen.
Friday morning, police caution tape cordoned off the library as officers stood by their cruisers on the northeast and southeast ends of the library and work crews removed graffiti from the walls. There were no protesters in the area.