Silke Jasso
Violent protests broke out on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley on Wednesday night. With fires being set and demonstrators throwing bottles, CNN reporter Kyung Lah got caught in a potentially dangerous situation as she reported live.
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Protesters came in force to rail against controversial author, provocative speaker and Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos, whose planned speech was cancelled by university officials. The protests drew a sharp Twitter response from President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold federal funds if the school does not “allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view.”
Lah was reporting for “Anderson 360” outside a building with active demonstrators, fires burning and a series of explosive-type bangs going off as police tried to disperse the crowd.
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“What you’re seeing behind me is quite a bit of commotion,” Lah reports to Cooper. “What is happening here is that these are student protesters, anarchists from what I can gather, trying to breach the building right now.”
At that point, a loud explosion is heart, followed by Lah screaming, “Back up! Watch out!”
With the camera still rolling, Lah is heard saying, “We’re backing up, we’re backing up.”
Cooper then asks if Lah can explain what just happened.
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“What you can see Anderson is they are trying to disperse the crowd, the police are trying to disperse the crowd. I don’t have any idea how many people are here, but you can certainly feel there is a lot of tension.”
As Anderson attempts to interrupt her, Lah continues to report the scene unfolding around her.
“From what I can tell, police officers who are dressed in riot gear are just trying to keep this building where this event is supposed to be happening secure. What we saw were some of the people picking up barricades and trying to ram through windows, and then we’re going to try to get a little bit closer again.”
