Liberated Zone appears to be a euphemism for an anti-Israel encampment.
The City reports:
City College Cops Pepper Spray Students Setting Up ‘Liberated Zone’CUNY public safety officers and the NYPD quickly quashed an attempt by students to establish a ‘Liberated Zone’ on the quad of City College of New York on Thursday afternoon.A group of several dozen pro-Palestinian protesters on the campus announced they’d set up a “liberated zone” around 2 p.m. but were swiftly confronted by CUNY officers who forced them out of the area, dousing some in pepper spray. At least one student was arrested, an NYPD spokesperson later confirmed.One video posted by a photojournalist Marcos Gabriel Quiñones showed a CUNY officer waving the pepper spray at the crowd, which also appeared to waft onto an adjacent public safety officer who covered his face, backing away from the students.One CUNY undergraduate student named Aria, who declined to give her name and age because of worries about retaliation from administrators, said she’d hopped a fence to avoid the cloud.“They began indiscriminately pepper spraying us,” she said.Similar to the five demands spelled out by students during last year’s encampment on CCNY campus, Aria said the goal of demonstrators in the liberated liberated zone was to pressure CUNY to disclose its investments and divest from companies profiting off Israel’s war in Gaza, as well as calling for free tuition to the university among others.CUNY spokesperson Jay Mwamba said the university was aware of the demonstration at CCNY, declining to comment on the use of pepper spray.“As there is an active investigation at this time, we cannot comment on specific allegations related to today’s protest,” Mwamba said. “Extra public safety officers are on campus and access to the campus is restricted to CCNY employees and students with ID.”
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