9 Arrested in Drunken Riot Near UCLA
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Nine people were arrested and two LAPD officers suffered minor injuries early Thursday after a UCLA finals-week tradition turned into a riot.
Mattresses and books burned in the streets and police dodged BBs and fireworks in nearly three hours of disturbances near the intersection of Strathmore Place and Landfair Avenue, about a block from campus.
At 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, Los Angeles police and firefighters arrived in the densely populated neighborhood to find between 500 and 700 students in the streets, as pillows and other burning things were thrown from above.
Officials say drunken students disrupted firefighters’ attempts to put out the flames and targeted police with rocks, bottles and fireworks.
It took police nearly three hours to clear the scene. The arrestees were charged with refusing to disperse.
Traditionally during finals week, UCLA students hold a nightly “midnight yell.”
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