Greater than two dozen officers in riot gear descended on UCLA Thursday afternoon, dealing with off with pro-Palestinian protesters who had erected a brand new encampment on campus hours earlier.
The transfer got here amid escalating tensions between pro-Palestinian college students and their school allies and directors on the Westwood campus. The tutorial staff union introduced Thursday that its ongoing strike over working circumstances would broaden to UCLA and UC Davis on Tuesday.
Union members contend that their free speech rights had been violated when UC system leaders referred to as on police to forcibly take away pro-Palestinian encampments at a number of campuses, together with at UCLA.
“It’s a really fraught, violent setting that the administration has created right here,” mentioned Vincent Doehr, a graduate pupil and union member. “The disruption to campus immediately is coming from administration shutting down this whole space attributable to an encampment that’s merely within the courtyard of 1 constructing.”
What began as a small group of protesters establishing a number of tents on the Kerckhoff patio Thursday morning had grown to a number of hundred supporters, together with educational union members, outdoors the encampment by the afternoon. Police pushed again the group, which ultimately retreated to a different space of campus close to Murphy Corridor, and tore down the encampment and wooden pallets surrounding it.
A campus spokesperson mentioned no arrests had been reported by Thursday afternoon. It was not clear whether or not anybody had been injured.
Protesters fill Dodd Corridor at UCLA on Thursday.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
Video from the scene confirmed protesters marching by way of Dodd Corridor chanting, “From the river to the ocean, Palestine might be free.” A Palestinian flag hung from a second-floor window of Dodd Corridor.
Sebastian Cazares, a UCLA grad pupil and an area training and civil rights organizer, mentioned the brand new encampment was set as much as present that “police repression couldn’t cease this motion.”
“Although this can be a peaceable motion, they’re nonetheless studying no classes and sending out militarized regulation enforcement in response,” he mentioned.
Doehr mentioned he hoped the strike would immediate the college to “negotiate in good religion with the motion for divestment, somewhat than calling the police on college students each time they protest.”
Professional-Palestinian protesters lock arms as police transfer in to take away a brand new encampment at UCLA.
(Christina Home/Los Angeles Occasions)
In accordance with the union, dozens of educational staff are nonetheless dealing with prison expenses, disciplinary motion or each. Many are barred from campus, the union mentioned, together with campus housing and lessons they could educate or attend.
Hours earlier than police arrived, campus officers had warned these within the encampment to disperse or face potential disciplinary and authorized motion.
“Regulation enforcement is ready to arrest people, in accordance with relevant regulation,” directors wrote in a letter to protesters. “We stay dedicated to supporting the security and well-being of Bruins, supporting the free expression rights of our group, and minimizing disruption to our educating and studying mission.”
By the afternoon, a handful of scholars in kaffiyehs sat outdoors the north finish of the encampment, sharing drinks and snacks. They had been there to point out assist for the protesters, one mentioned. A small crowd gathered on the south finish of the encampment, some holding indicators that learn, “UAW rank & file staff for Palestine.” Protesters marched in a circle outdoors the close by Mathematical Sciences Constructing, chanting, “Free Palestine.”
Demonstrators collect outdoors Murphy Corridor on the Westwood campus on Thursday.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
Police tape blocked off the doorway to the encampment, and officers prevented folks from getting into the realm. At one level, protesters surged previous the police tape to ship water to the location. Lessons held within the buildings surrounding the encampment had been shifted on-line.
Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck and Affiliate Vice Chancellor for Campus Security Rick Braziel mentioned in an announcement that the “demonstrators’ actions — together with erecting barricades, establishing fortifications, and blocking entry to elements of the campus and buildings — are disrupting campus operations.”
The police response to the encampment got here on the identical day that UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, who has led the college amid months of tense protests over the Israel-Hamas conflict, testified earlier than a congressional listening to on campus antisemitism.
Dana Kopel, a second-year PhD pupil at UCLA who’s a supporter of Palestinian solidarity actions on campus, mentioned the congressional inquiry was “a part of the bigger course of within the U.S. to border antisemitism as a way to suppress pupil protest and the justification for the violent suppression of pupil protests at UCLA and elsewhere.”
A girl is helped up after taking a fall as police pushed protesters.
(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)
Some Jewish college students on campus mentioned they felt intimidated by the preliminary encampment as protesters scrawled graffiti equivalent to “Loss of life 2 Zionism” on campus buildings and blocked entry. The phrase “From the river to the ocean, Palestine might be free,” which is ceaselessly used at protests, has additionally been seen as antisemitic amongst sure teams, together with the Anti-Defamation League.
Kopel mentioned college students concerned within the protests have “remained steadfast” of their assist for Palestinians and their aim to finish the bloodshed in Gaza.
“So many of those college students confronted such intense violence only a few weeks in the past,” Kopel mentioned. “I feel that’s why there’s an actual effort to speak that the dangers of this are excessive. The college has made it clear and the federal government has made it clear that they need to suppress the solidarity motion in any respect prices.”
In early Might, greater than 200 folks had been arrested on the UCLA campus as police dismantled tents and pushed out protesters in a conflict that lasted hours. The police operation capped two days of upheaval on the campus that started when college officers declared the encampment “illegal” and continued when a bunch of pro-Israeli counterprotesters attacked the camp, with police taking hours to cease the violence.
Officers from the Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Culver Metropolis police departments confronted protesters Thursday at UCLA.
(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)
Rafael Jaime, a UCLA graduate pupil and native union president, was on the encampment through the assault in late April and witnessed firsthand what he mentioned was the college’s inaction.
“I used to be there for a lot of hours whereas the college stood by and allowed the assault to proceed,” he mentioned. “The college has engaged in very critical illegal conduct that resulted in many people getting harm.”
UCLA officers have been sharply criticized over their dealing with of the scenario. UCLA Police Chief John Thomas on Wednesday was faraway from his put up and reassigned over safety failures that led to violence on the encampment. Thomas, who didn’t return cellphone calls this week searching for remark, defended his actions in a earlier interview and mentioned he did one of the best he might.
UCLA, like different universities throughout the nation, has emerged as a hotbed of pro-Palestinian activism in latest months.
College students, school and employees have erected makeshift camps and demanded an finish to Israel’s conflict within the Gaza Strip and that their universities divest from corporations that promote weapons or providers to Israel. A number of camps, together with one at Cal State Los Angeles, stay energetic. Others, together with one at USC and one other at UC Irvine, have been dismantled by police in latest weeks.
Union leaders have demanded safety totally free speech on campus; amnesty for all educational workers, college students, pupil teams, school and employees who face disciplinary motion or arrest attributable to participation in protests; and divestment by the college from “weapons producers, army contractors and firms making the most of Israel’s conflict on Gaza.”
In response, the college has requested the state labor board to hunt a courtroom injunction to halt the strike, contending that the motion is unlawful.
UCLA graduate pupil and elected union chief Anny Viloria Winnett mentioned it’s important that staff go on strike to face up for a secure setting and free speech.
“There is no such thing as a existential menace bigger for a union than not with the ability to converse our thoughts and protest,” she mentioned.
Occasions employees writers Jaweed Kaleem, Richard Winton and Teresa Watanabe contributed to this report.
