UCLA classes again shifted online Friday, as the campus continued to reel in the aftermath of a sprawling pro-Palestinian protest this week that sparked a mammoth police response and more than 200 arrests. Questions smoldered about the university’s response to the encampment and the counter protests that sparked violent overnight clashes.
Across Southern California, from neighboring USC to Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties, demonstrations large and small continued, fueled by demands for a cease-fire in Gaza and that schools divest from entities that do business with Israel.
Many grappled with the aftershocks of the protest at UCLA, with the UC Board of Regents planning a special closed-door meeting Friday to discuss campus encampments and the university system’s response. Also, a group of activists, educators, parents and student leaders expressed concern during a meeting in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, most of the people arrested this week appeared to have been released from custody. According to the sheriff’s department, a total of 209 people were arrested during the law enforcement raid on the encampment, which occurred around 2:45 a.m. Thursday and ended the weeklong protest that was the scene of multiple violent clashes. Students and faculty have said roughly two dozen who were hospitalized amid the law enforcement response.
Most of those arrested in the raid were processed and booked on suspicion of unlawful assembly, then released from custody with instructions to appear in court at a later date.
“Individuals were given food, water and had access to public restrooms as they were being processed,” according to the sheriff’s department. “They were also offered reentry services and transportation services.”
California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers detain protestors while clearing a pro-Palestinian encampment after dispersal orders were given at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus on May 2, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. The camp was declared ‘unlawful’ by the university and scores of protestors who refused to leave were detained during the operation. Pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung up at college campuses around the country with some protestors calling for schools to divest from Israeli interests amid the ongoing war in Gaza. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia said in a statement Thursday that his office is committed to providing all arrestees with representation and support.
“At this time, we do not have information on what, if any, charges will be presented,” he said. “Nonetheless, it is essential that due process and the presumption of innocence are upheld. We will work diligently to protect the rights of our clients throughout.”
From public comments made Thursday by county prosecutors, many will likely face only possible misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly or failure to disperse. If so, those cases would be handled through the L.A. City Attorney’s Office.
Pressure on Administration
By Friday, it was UCLA administration that was the focus of heavy criticism, not just by students but by faculty.
Members of the school’s Department of History released a statement on the department’s website levying the critique: “Members of the Department of History at UCLA are horrified that the university administration has continued to disregard our students’ safety and their right to express their views,” they wrote. “The university went from permitting a violent mob to attack our students (on 4/30 to 5/1) to authorizing law enforcement to brutalize the same students (on 5/2).”
The faculty criticism echoes students and other groups that have criticized the university and UCLA Chancellor Gene Block for their response to the protest and the classes with counter-protesters that led to violence.
Block has vowed an investigation at the UCLA level, and UC President Michael Drake has also pledged a review, folllowing a delayed police response to clashes overnight on Tuesday into Wednesday.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom and other elected officials have called for investigations into pro-Israeli counter-protesters’ attack that was allowed to rage for several hours with little to no police intervention, until officers in riot gear finally moved in around 3 a.m. and restored order.
In a message to the UCLA community Wednesday afternoon, Block called the overnight clashes the result of “instigators” who came to the campus to “forcefully attack the encampment.”
File photo: UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, second from left, talks with UC Regents chair Rich Lieb, left, and Regents chair Michael Drake, right, before a discussion in San Francisco, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, about UCLA’s desire to join the Big 10. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
On Thursday, Block, who has served as chancellor since 2007 and had announced months ago he was stepping down from the job in July, said the university “approached the encampment with the goal of maximizing our community members’ ability to make their voices heard on an urgent global issue. We had allowed it to remain in place so long as it did not jeopardize Bruins’ safety or harm our ability to carry out our mission.”
But, he added, the encampment became “a focal point for serious violence as well as a huge disruption to our campus,” and so, officials decided early Thursday to direct UC police and outside law enforcement officers to enter and clear the encampment.
But it was the law enforcement response earlier in the week that did not sit well with members of the faculty.
“Our colleagues observed that the LAPD advanced on the student encampment, pushing and herding them, using the tactic of kettling,” alleged faculty in their statement. “Forced closely together, the students made easy targets for police who shot them with stun grenades, chemical agents, and rubber bullets. Police beat them with batons and shot them with rubber bullets, striking one student in the face with a rubber bullet.
“At least 25 students had to be hospitalized. They then arrested approximately 200 students, staff, faculty, dragging visibly injured students away. This wanton use of potentially lethal force culminated in the complete destruction of the encampment.”
The professors — 33 who signed the statement — added that Block’s message to the community after the event “seriously misrepresented these matters.”
Among demands, they called on UCLA to refrain from disciplinary actions against peaceful protesters and employees, the university’s advocacy on behalf of legal support for protesters, the payment of medical bills for protesters, “a serious engagement on the part of the university with the demands of protesters on the matter of disclosure and broad divestment from military weapons production companies and systems,” and a promise that the search for a new chancellor as Block steps down will address the issues the protests spurred, such as free expression and protection of students.
The criticism kept coming, with law enforcement itself pointing to university administrators for “accountability.”
In response to the criticism of the police response to the violence, the Federated University Police Officers’ Association issued a statement on behalf of officers at the 10 police departments in the UC system. The association insisted that decisions about police response to campus violence “rest firmly in the hands of campus leadership.”
“They shoulder the accountability for the outcomes stemming from these decisions, not the UC Police Department,” according to the group. “… The campus leadership, not law enforcement, owns the results of their decisions.”
California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers clear a pro-Palestinian encampment after dispersal orders were given at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, on May 2, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. The camp was declared ‘unlawful’ by the university and scores of protestors who refused to leave were detained during the operation. Pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung up at college campuses around the country with some protestors calling for schools to divest from Israeli interests amid the ongoing war in Gaza. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Organizers of the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment, similar to their counterparts at USC, had issued a list of demands last week calling for divestment of all University of California and UCLA Foundation funds from companies tied to Israel, along with a demand that the university call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and begin an academic boycott against Israeli universities, including a suspension of study-abroad programs.
The UC issued a statement in response noting that the university has “consistently opposed calls for boycott against and divestment from Israel. While the university affirms the right of our community members to express diverse viewpoints, a boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchange of ideas on our campuses.
“UC tuition and fees are the primary funding sources for the University’s core operations. None of these funds are used for investment purposes,” the statement continued.
City News Service contributed to this article.