Background and context

• Block has a contentious history with SJP

  • Op-ed by Gene Block argues that pro-Israel delegates should be allowed to participate

    • As a non-USAC affiliated student org they have no obligation to do this—student org constitutions

• The Jewish community has a history of actively engaging with the university

  • Jewish community is the 2nd largest in the United States

  • They have broad access to campus, policy is strict but not enforced (bring this up when evidence is presented)

    • Regents of UC conduct policy for non-affiliates

      • 100001.B. ““University Property” means buildings and grounds that are operated by, or under the control of, the Regents of the University of California

        • Weapons definition should be expanded, What about bear spray? Fireworks?

  • They organize their own protests on campus and they attend protests they oppose

    • They are aware of what’s going on somehow

    • Resolution in response states “Muslim women were verbally harassed and physically assaulted on November 6th by individuals protesting the NJSP conference”

Incidents occurring after Oct 7th

• Student testimonies

  • Safety through rhetoric

    • student needs are becoming more nuanced and sensitive

  • Students voice concerns

  • UCLA faces scrutiny for safety issues

• Tracking and targeting

  • Emergency teach-in posted at Kaplan 193

    • Met with aggression

  • CAC staff harassment

• Heckling, harassing, disrupting

  • Islamophobia on Campus

  • Counter-protesters attend a BDS rally

  • Encounters leading to aggression

March Regents meeting

• Regents meeting met with protests and police response

  • “UCPD requested backup from LAPD at around 8:40 p.m.”

  • “At least 40 police officers from multiple departments, including UCPD, LAPD and Beverly Hills Police Department, arrived at the hotel and conference center shortly after”

• UC Divest “shut it down” (police footage) IG post

  • UC Divest in the above claims that UCPD, LAPD, Culver City PD, and Santa Monica PD were all on the scene

  • 100 plus cops were there

Protest

• Vague UCLA position for safety assessment from the start

  • Mary Osako statement is vague with regard to what constitutes the threshold for an unsafe environment on campus

• Lack of preparedness: aggression happening days before April 30th

  • David Myers present at protest during escalating tension on the Sunday before Tuesday, April 30th article

  • Protest timeline

    • Skirmishes and violent incidents happening days before April 30th

    • Large counter-protester groups congregated

  • Incident that likely was the catalyst for the encampment shutdown the next day DB

    • This Rick Braziel statement makes no sense, they couldn’t get a police response together in 24 hrs?

  • Everyone was breaking rules wrt permits, masking, and loitering/encampments

    • Example: the university allowed a disruptive screen to be present on campus for days after its permit expired

    • The university is not obligated to treat non-affiliates and students with equal “fairness” wrt timeliness of accountability measures and conduct enforcement

      • “Non-Affiliates: The time, place, manner document specifies that non-affiliates may be asked to leave campus or face other immediate actions if they violate campus regulations, particularly when they are seen as a disruption (e.g., Section II under “Grounds Open to the Public” and Section IV.A.5). This suggests that non-affiliates can be dealt with swiftly and directly by University officials.”

        • This should be official policy—given the same misconduct, non-affiliates are subject to timely disciplinary action that may or may not be consistent with actions taken to hold students accountable

• April 30th UCLA response

  • No guidance

    • “The univerisity has not previously called the encampment unlawful or unauthorized” DB

  • No supervision

    • “We will not leave” statement by UC Divest in DB

      • IG statement

  • Weak response, too little too late

    • Block sent an email at 5:04 p.m. on April 30th DB

  • Vague policy measures instead of proper crowd control

    • Newsroom statement on the morning of April 30th

    • Totally cryptic flyer largely directed at non-affiliates

      • Without explanation to what they meant by “unlawful” it sounds like they were conjuring “legalese” to get rid of protesters

    • Blocks email essentially took a policy stance rather than laying out authoritative directives and reasoning behind it

      • Opened the door for “interpretation” of the email as a university position—ie the university’s opinion, this was totally confusing

        • This pits the university “against” the protesters, it will cause defiance, rebellion

          • Content-neutral identification of “time, place, and manner” misconduct would be less likely to flare tensions

        • The administration did not understand or convey the urgency of the matter—this is the main point, the safety issue is why the encampment needed to be cleared right away

• Violence occurred the evening of April 30th

  • Delayed police response

    • CSC and UCPD present on the scene did little to quell violence article

      • CSC called LAPD sometime before 10:55 p.m. “when the first firework was released”

      • CSC Security: Hired by UCLA, retreated into Kaplan Hall and did not engage with the protesters or counter-protesters

      • Two UCPD cars and one UCLA EMT arrived at 11:13 p.m. but left by 11:21 p.m.

      • UCPD Chief John Thomas mentioned only five to six officers on duty and that officers retreated after coming under attack

      • Around 70 police officers were on the scene by 3 a.m.

    • Daily Bruin “The attack began around 10:50 p.m., when counter-protesters started throwing fireworks and tear gas into the encampment. Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications Mary Osako said at 12:12 a.m. in a statement that law enforcement had been called for immediate support. However, police did not intervene until more than two hours later.”

    • Newsroom statement 12:12 am they called backup

    • tiktok talks about delayed police response, states specific times. He got there at 12:20 am, they arrived at 1:45 am, and stood watching for about an hour. Brawling went on for two hours without police intervention.

      • 1:38 am Newsom tweet likely referring to CHP

      • 1:47 am tweet by Karen Bass, LAPD arrived on campus tweet

    • Scenes where police arrived half an hour before and did nothing

  • General scenes of violence

    • Bruin reporter gets assaulted

    • CNN video

• Post-April 30th events

  • CalMatters footage of police misconduct, twitter

  • CalMatters official review

Reactions to protest

• UCLA looks at how to “fund” protest

• 200 plus arrests

  • Mismanaged situation by the administration leads to student arrests

• Tracking down perpetrators

  • Guardian says far-right groups joined the attack article. Irrelevant?

  • One individual arrested article

• Finger pointing

  • Newsom statement

    • Refers to Mutual Aid Agreements

    • Agreements in effect since 2022 DB

  • Karen Bass “shocked and horrified” statement

    • Questions to be answered:

      • Not considered “LAPD” territory—UCPD and CHP respond to calls on UC campuses

      • Notify law enforcement in advance, can’t call backup while events unfolding, when was mutual aid called for?

      • The appropriate “decision makers, where were they?”

      • “Why frankly was the counter-protest happening right next door to the encampment?”

        • Groups can be separated based on content-neutral concerns such as safety and security

      • People need to be held accountable, this might mean someone gets fired, or improvements and recommendations

• DB points to police mishandling article

• Gene Block reflects on the evening before statement

  • States measures to be taken to hold people accountable

    • Follow up? No news wrt holding non-affiliates accountable?

  • Condemns the violence—“However one feels about the encampment, this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable.”

    • Asserts an “opinion” but still an unusual condemnation of non-affiliate activity

• Gene Block testimony UCLA Policy—Should

  • It was never stated that the encampment posed a safety risk to students, although Block cited safety concerns as the reason for removal at the Committee hearing (Figure 56 @ 44:14).

    • If Block was aware of the security risks, and there was no indication students would leave, why weren’t police reinforcements on standby to head off the mounting tension?

    • He clearly was not aware of the security risks, as evidenced by the statement “law enforcement is on hand to protect and keep safe [students and demonstrators as you vacate]””

      • From the above we know that the protest was severely understaffed from a safety and security standpoint

• Office of Campus Safety (this might belong in another section)

  • manage UCPD

  • manage Office of Emergency Management

  • inagural Associate Vice Chancellor Rick Braziel will lead the office

• UC wide ban on masking, encampment conduct

• One would think, what happened was enough to say UCLA is prepared for future incidents, but Columbia’s measures indicate they believe closing campus is the safest way forward

  • Columbia color codes campus climate; no longer allows non-affiliates access article

Post-protest issues continue

• Police misconduct at pro-Palestine protest IG post

  • Officer misconduct goes unpunished in general article

Notes

UCLA releases new time, place, manner policies

California withholds funds until UC’s figure out bla bla bla (“article draft”)

With UCLA as the example—

1. Institutional and organizational bias

2. Campus safety

SCU as the example—

1. Students are not reporting enough

UC’s as an example—

1. Campus climate issues, such as Black students not feeling comfortable on campus

2. Campus climate assessment based on totality of circumstances

3. Notification of students’ rights

Major themes based on my objective—

1. Campus climate assessment based on totality of circumstances

2. Institutional and organizational bias

3. Safety and knowledge of students’ rights

4. Pathways to increase reporting

5. Elimination of discrimination in on-campus settings

6. Awareness of what constitutes harm: bias, discrimination, assault