By Sarah Chayet
LOS ANGELES, CA – The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that, before dawn, more than 200 people were arrested for participating in an anti-war, pro-Palestinian encampment on UCLA’s campus as they called for an end to the war and for UCLA to divest from companies that support Israel’s war efforts.
Among the arrested were UCLA students and professors; one of the arrested professors released a statement Thursday voicing disdain for UCLA’s handling of this week’s events.
On Tuesday night, pro-Israeli counter-protesters had attacked the encampment, and, according to the Los Angeles Times, it took police hours to begin to deescalate the confrontation, which was described by the Los Angeles Times as violent.
Conflict arose again on Thursday morning, this time between the police and the anti-war encampment participants, according to the Los Angeles Times, which reported police arrived in riot gear with flares, rubber bullets, and flash-bang devices in an effort to end the encampment’s protest.
A statement from one of the professors at UCLA arrested Thursday morning explained why they would not be holding class that day, and described the scene.
“I just got home from jail, where I was put because I was arrested by our university while pleading with police officers to stop assaulting my students on their own campus…for exercising their First Amendment right to assemble.
“(A)nd pleading with other officers to stop pointing their weapons at my students, and pleading with other officers to take their fingers off the triggers of the weapons they were pointing at my students, and pleading with other officers to stop firing flash bangs over the heads of my terrified students hundreds of times,” the UCLA professor’s statement reads.
According to the UCLA professor’s statement, police allegedly damaged their personal belongings and class materials.
“The police destroyed my backpack with our class texts in it (as well as my apartment keys) with a large knife and did not return it to me…it is not possible to have class,” said the UCLA professor.
In the statement, the UCLA professor claimed to have witnessed Tuesday’s attack by counter protestors first-hand, citing the intensity of and reactions to both of these events as the reason why other classes were going to be held on Zoom for the time being.
This professor, however, would not be able to conduct classes on Zoom, having been released from jail that morning and lacking in crucial belongings necessary to hold class and access their materials.
The UCLA professor concluded the statement with a suggestion that some professors would engage in a work stoppage Thursday out of concern for this week’s events.
“Many concerned professors who care about the fact that the university allowed two nights of unnecessary and horrific violence upon its students on their own campus are engaging in a work stoppage today,” said the UCLA professor.
According to the Los Angeles Times article, groups of people arrived on UCLA’s campus Thursday morning to help clean up the debris left over from dawn’s events—much of the encampment’s materials remained on the site.
