According to a group representing Gaza war protesters at UCLA, the arrests of more than 200 people early Thursday during the eviction of the school’s pro-Palestine student encampment was an “orchestrated effort” by LAPD and CHP officers to inflict harm, and not a response to any real safety concerns.
The UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment organization accused Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol of committing multiple acts of brutality over a span of 12 hours in a statement obtained by TheWrap. They said officers “shot students with rubber bullets and threw flashbang grenades to disarm and paralyze them” and “brutalized students and community allies,” and also “specifically” targeted students who were wearing keffiyehs.
However, the group asserted, the majority of this brutality wasn’t captured by the media because officers “performed in full composure” wherever media was present.
The group also criticized UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and accused him and the school of allowing the right wing mob that attacked protesters unprovoked late Tuesday night — referred to in the statement as “zionist aggressors” and “an uncaring tyrannical extension of the zionist project” — to gather “directly across from our encampment for days.”
The statement said, “The only thing keeping us safe is each other.”
The statement continued in a similar manner, disputing UCLA's concern for student safety and ending with a call for students and faculty to “reflect” on the events, and a vow to continue the protests. The full statement can be read at the bottom of the page.
LAPD representatives declined to comment on the accusations and directed TheWrap’s reporter to UCLA media relations. Representatives for UCLA and for the California Highway Patrol, which was also on hand during the eviction, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from thewrap.
The events Thursday morning marked a chaotic 24 hours starting with the aforementioned Tuesday night attack by individuals using fireworks, pipes and tear gas against the encampment. Block later said that violence was mainly carried out by people from outside the UCLA student community. LAPD and the university were heavily criticized for taking more than 3 hours to quell the attack, with students even accusing LAPD of standing by and doing nothing as it raged on. UCLA’s campus was closed on Wednesday afternoon and authorities declared the encampment to be an “unlawful assembly” soon after.
Across town, USC announced on Thursday that the Marshall Business School commencement ceremony will take place at the Coliseum instead of Alumni Park, where protesters have been encamped for at least a week, indicating that for now it will not follow UCLA’s lead and evict protesters by force.
The statement from the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment in its entirety:
“Today is day 207 of Israel’s genocidal campaign against Gaza, and 76 years into the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
“Please discuss safety with us. Yesterday, law enforcement attacked the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment. During a 12-hour period, police mistreated students and community allies, broke through the encampment barricades, and focused on the most vulnerable, resulting in over 200 arrests. Safety.”
“In a coordinated effort, CHP and LAPD used rubber bullets and flashbang grenades to incapacitate and immobilize students, while zionists outside and inside the encampment used pepper spray and bear mace against them. Police detained hundreds, using batons to push them back before pulling them to the ground for detainment. Officers were fully prepared with riot gear against unarmed students who formed a human chain to defend our encampment from authorized abuse by the university. And still, they have the audacity to speak to us on
safety.”
“Police specifically targeted students wearing keffiyehs, who often used them as masks when they couldn't find proper protective gear. While they acted calmly under clear media scrutiny, police carried out the worst of their brutalities where the press was not present. They removed students from our human chain and shot rubber bullets at close range, doing this in the corners of the Royce and Haines Hall barricade away from media coverage. Many were rushed to the ER after the bullets hit heads and hands.”
“Explain to us: is this safety? Time and again, this university has emphasized that all its actions were guided by one ideal– safety. Who was unsafe last night? Who was unsafe the night before? We, the students, have been the targets of despicable attacks carried out by an uncaring tyrannical extension of the zionist project. Gene Block mentions that the encampment had become a “focal point for serious violence”. Violence from who? Perhaps the zionist aggressors whom the school allowed to remain directly across from our encampment for days?”
“By failing to protect its students against chemical weapons and fireworks– definite acts of terrorism– and by deploying the LAPD to forcefully dismantle the student encampment, UCLA is deliberately suppressing a nonviolent movement calling for divestment from genocide. Safety now seems to have a different meaning to the oppressive and repressive administration. To the UCLA administration, ‘safety’ has nothing to do with its students or with the 38,000+ Palestinian lives lost in Gaza over the last 200 days. The only ‘safety’ our university cares about is that of its investments in a system that profits from genocide. Our administration has the nerve to address this community about safety and yet the only thing keeping us safe is each other.”
“Sumud, or صمود, is the Palestinian concept of collective resilience and steadfastness. The Palestinian Solidarity Encampment remains strong in their sumud. To students, faculty, and community members: reflect on these days in the community of the encampment. Structures of violence should not be used by UCLA– a supposed free speech advocate– to suppress our demands. We would relive this week again and again if it means the liberation of Palestine and we remain committed to our just cause- as should you all. We will not stop, we will not rest.”
“Together with,
The suppressed, disadvantaged, and always-determined UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment.”
