VIDEO: Pomona calls riot police, 25 police vehicles on 19-student sit-in at Alexander Hall

Just two hours after a 19-student sit-in began on Friday afternoon, Pomona admin called in more than 30 officers from five police departments — including over a dozen in riot gear, some armed with shields and high-caliber grenade launchers typically used to fire tear gas, rubber bullets, and other crowd control munitions — to arrest them for trespassing and forcibly remove them from President Gabi Starr’s office. Police also arrested one student who was outside the building supporting the protest.

Watch the video below. See also: PHOTOS: Pomona College calls in riot police to arrest 19 students participating in peaceful sit-in

The latest in a wave of harsh supression of pro-Palestinian student speech around the country, Pomona College also placed all arrested Pomona students on “interim suspension,” immediately depriving them of housing and all access to campus. Pomona’s harsh repression of pro-Palestinian student speech followed a student body-wide referendum in March in which an overwhelming majority voted in favor of divestment from Israeli apartheid, and neighboring Pitzer College’s historic suspension of its study abroad program with the University of Haifa in the ‘48 territories.

In the last week, @vanderbiltu arrested four students and placed 27 on interim suspension after a 20-hour @vanderbiltdivestcoalition sit-in to demand a divestment referendum, and @columbia suspended six students after a “Resistance 101” teach-in @sjp.columbia

At around 6 p.m. Friday, at least 25 police vehicles from Pomona, Claremont, La Verne, Covina, and Azusa police departments had been called to campus, and several blocks shut down by lines of cops.