The Palestine Solidarity Encampment at UCLA ended in the precise manner university leaders initially sought to avoid — with a massive police force arresting more than 200 protesters in the dead of night.
When the encampment sprung up on Royce Quad last Thursday, April 25, the university envisioned a world in which students could peacefully display their message on the large green field while students shuttled to class nearby.
Instead, they faced a situation where protesters allegedly blocked student access to classes, counter-protesters violently attacked the encampment, and leaders across the nation condemned the university’s failure to keep students safe.
So how did the situation spiral so out of control?
The simple answer is violence and a lack of action from UCLA to maintain order around the encampment.
“For all the school’s pretense of student safety we’ve experienced an unprecedented amount of violence and hatred while they stood by,” said a student protest leader on Tuesday, who requested anonymity due to safety concerns.
Daniel Harris, a senior at UCLA, said he was very frustrated by the university’s failure to communicate how the encampment would be handled and how students would be protected.
“The university knew that it was only a matter of time before these tensions would arise, they let it go too far,” Harris said. “They need to have top leaders of the campus get together and let people know, ‘Hey, this is what’s happened, this is what we plan on doing’.”
Understanding exactly how violence and disorder escalated requires a closer look at the events leading up to Wednesday night’s crackdown, beginning with last week’s arrests at USC.
A large group of protestors, both students and non-students, stand with arms locked at Alumni Park on USC’s campus Wednesday, April 24, 2024. LAPD officers surround them. (Photo by Hunter Lee, LA Daily News/SCNG)
Student protesters began setting up a ‘”Palestine solidarity encampment” at USC’s Alumni Park on the morning of Wednesday April 24, but were immediately ordered by campus public safety to take the tents down. Around 6 p.m. that day, LAPD declared an unlawful assembly and later proceeded to arrest 93 protesters who refused to disperse.
The following day UCLA students began their occupation of Royce Quad and the administration took a hands-off approach, seeking to avoid the negative attention that USC received following its heavy police response.
On Friday, April 26, Vice Chancellor Mary Osako said UCLA would be following a policy “not to request law enforcement involvement preemptively, and only if absolutely necessary to protect the physical safety of our campus community.” In lieu of external police the university initially relied on campus police officers and hired security guards to maintain order.
Palestine Solidarity Encampment on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles on Wednesday May 1, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
From the start of the encampment there were daily skirmishes reported between encampment members and pro-Israeli counter protests. These skirmishes escalated to full-blown conflict Sunday afternoon when a pro-Israel rally was held adjacent to the encampment and barriers established to separate the two groups were breached.
During the course of the occupation, protesters also used metal barriers to seal off the entrances to the encampment area and control foot traffic in and around Royce Quad. This gave them power over which students would be allowed to access certain entrances of nearby buildings.
Criticism of UCLA leadership grew louder on Monday morning, following allegations that protesters were blocking some students from going to class.
Osako issued a Tuesday morning statement saying “this kind of disruption to our teaching and learning mission is abhorrent, plain and simple” and said the allegations would be investigated.
Violence broke loose on at 11 p.m. on Tuesday when a coordinated group of counter-protesters staged an attack on the encampment using pepper spray, projectiles, fireworks and pipes.
University police and hired security guards did not intervene during the initial hours of the attack, and LAPD arrived at the scene at 1 a.m. and did not restore order until around 3 a.m.
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The criticism of UCLA leadership then reached a fever pitch as reports rolled in of students being rushed to the ER with severe injuries from the attacks.
City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents the area around UCLA, called the police response “too slow and ineffective in protecting student safety.”
“In failing to control the situation, students and others on campus were left vulnerable to violence that has no place on our college campuses,” she said in a statement.
On Wednesday, there was a clear shift in tone at the university as police officers from several outside departments including the LAPD, CHP and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, began showing up in droves. At 6 p.m. a loudspeaker message was blasted to the encampment declaring the occupation an unlawful gathering and warning protesters to leave or face consequences.
Around 2:45 a.m. hundreds of officers in riot gear breached the perimeter of the encampment and started making arrests.
Despite UCLA’s desire to avoid a harsh police response, the arrests were similar to the actions at USC with protesters locking arms in the center of the protest area and ultimately being taken away one-by-one in zip ties.
The major difference: UCLA had more than double the number of arrests.
