Crowd of protesters at Mass. campus encampment grows, police presence returns [Video]

A handful of police officers were spotted at Northeastern University’s Centennial Common late Friday night, as demonstrators at an encampment expressed new concerns about possible removal during the overnight hours. The growing crowd of protesters were calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and for the university to cut financial ties with Israel. Their demands are similar to other protests on campuses across the country, including several in the Boston area.”Our demands right now are for the university to disclose their ties to Israel, divest from Israel and, at a bare minimum, denounce the genocide happening in Gaza,” one member of the group said earlier in the day. The encampment popped up at Centennial Common on Thursday afternoon, with protesters creating a circle with linked arms. For about 20 tense minutes on Thursday afternoon, Boston police officers surrounded the encampment, but eventually left. The police presence increased once again late Friday …