Police in riot gear from agencies across the Bay Area broke up an encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators early Friday morning that had blocked the main entrance to the UC Santa Cruz campus for much of this week.
At least 80 people were arrested, according to UC Santa Cruz officials.
“Encampment participants were given repeated, clear direction to remove the encampment and cease blocking access to numerous campus resources and to the campus itself,” said Scott Hernandez-Jason, the university’s assistant vice chancellor for communications, in a statement.
“They were notified that their actions were unlawful and unsafe. And this morning they were also given multiple warnings by law enforcement to leave the area and disperse to avoid arrest. Unfortunately, many refused to follow this directive and many individuals are being arrested.”
By 9 a.m., workers with dump trucks hauled away tents, signs, and wooden barricades that the protesters had used. More than 100 officers, some from as far away as San Francisco, Daly City and the California Highway Patrol, blocked roughly 150 demonstrators at the corner of High Street and Hagar Drive, keeping them from the area a few hundred yards away where crews were removing the encampment.
“Intifada, intifada, long live intifada,” one woman chanted with a bullhorn. “UC, UC, you can’t hide, you’re committing genocide.”
Dozens of police from agencies across the Bay Area blocked student protesters from an operation to clear an pro-Palestinian encampment near the entrance to the UC Santa Cruz campus on Friday May 31, 2024. Police arrested some protesters while they broke up the encampment, which UCSC administrators said was blocking access to the campus. (Photo: Paul Rogers, Bay Area News Group)
Student protesters and their supporters called the police presence overkill.
“This is a peaceful protest,” said Charlie Delgado, who is from Los Angeles and graduated last year from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in sociology. “Our side did not initiate the aggression. We are peacefully protesting against a genocide. This display of power shows they are scared of us and the truth.”
The protesters began their demonstration May 1 at Quarry Plaza, near the university’s student union and bookstore. They moved to a parking lot near the main campus entrance on May 20, and since Tuesday had been blocking the entrance to campus.
With two weeks before finals, campus officials said they had had enough.
“We understand there is much grief, anger, and frustration about the events that continue to unfold in Gaza and Israel, and the immense suffering of innocent people,” UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive said in a statement. “I believe that many who have engaged in these protests over these many weeks are well-intentioned and attempting to make change through their spheres of influence. Unfortunately, the disruptions we experienced these weeks were harmful to others in our community. This decision was not made because individuals demonstrated; it was because they have chosen to do so through unlawful actions.”
The encampment included “chained barricades made of pallets and other materials,” which “disrupted campus operations and threatened safety, including delaying access of emergency vehicles,” she added.
“In one particularly worrisome incident Tuesday, an emergency medical vehicle was prevented from entering a facility in which a toddler was in distress,” she said. “Minutes and seconds can be the difference between life and death in an emergency. Actions such as this demonstrate a continued lack of regard for our campus community.”
Dozens of police from agencies across the Bay Area blocked student protesters from an operation to clear an pro-Palestinian encampment near the entrance to the UC Santa Cruz campus on Friday May 31, 2024. Police arrested some protesters while they broke up the encampment, which UCSC administrators said was blocking access to the campus. (Photo: Paul Rogers, Bay Area News Group)
The protesters have demanded that UC Santa Cruz, which ends spring quarter classes on June 13 for the summer, divest from Israeli companies, cut ties with Israeli universities, condemn Israel’s actions during the war against Hamas in Gaza, and provide amnesty to student protesters. UC administrators have declined to accept those demands during multiple negotiations.
Some students who were not part of the protests said they understood their passion, and were not upset about having to take classes recently online instead of in person.
“A lot of parents are mad about it, but most students aren’t,” said Emma Carpenter, a third year ecology major from the Mount Shasta area. “I support my fellow students, and I respect the cause. Moving a class is a small inconvenience.”
Ever since it opened in 1966, UC Santa Cruz has been a frequent site of campus activism.
“Students have always represented the front lines in American conscience — from the civil rights movement to the Vietnam War, to divestment from South Africa in the 1980s,” said Ami Chen Mills, a Santa Cruz resident who was observing the protest before heading off to her daughter’s high school graduation later in the day.
“Their positions aren’t popular at first,” said Mills, who ran for county supervisor in 2022. “But then their point of view is accepted and becomes what everybody says they agree with. It’s easy to judge them. But the situation in Gaza right now is not good for Jews, Israelis, or Americans.”
Graduate student teaching assistants and other workers at UC Santa Cruz began a strike on May 20, and have been joined by the United Auto Workers 4811. The strike was joined by graduate students at UCLA and UC Davis. Graduate student union members at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego have said they plan to also walk out on June 3 and at UC Irvine on June 5.
University of California, Santa Cruz graduate students and other academic workers in the UAW 4811 union begin a strike and are joined by UCSC students for Justice in Palestine as they picket the main entrance to campus on Monday, May 20, 2024, in Santa Cruz, Calif. (Shmuel Thaler/The Santa Cruz Sentinel via AP)