NYU student protest got 'out of control'

NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- An anonymous New York University student said a student protest at a campus cafeteria got "out of control" early Friday due to police involvement.

The unidentified NYU sophomore told the New York Daily News that the student protest that had been taking place since Wednesday had been peaceful before police officers began forcibly attempting to remove protesting students.

"We were peacefully demonstrating our right of free speech, then the police just had to lay it down, lay hands on us," the student alleged of the early morning clash, which resulted in two arrests. "That isn't right. That's when things got out of control."

Police had been enforcing a 1 a.m. deadline for students to end the Take Back NYU! Coalition protest. Those students had been threatened with arrest and expulsion if they didn't comply, the Daily News said.

The protest was aimed at garnering scholarships for Palestinian students and greater budgetary transparency on the part of the university. The protesters had also asked that the Islamic university in Gaza receive any of the school's surplus supplies, the Daily News said.