After police in riot gear cleared an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters at UC San Diego and arrested about 65 people in an early-morning raid May 6, the crackdown drew swift condemnation from some faculty members.
The first large confrontation between police and protesters on the La Jolla campus in decades followed five days of demonstrations that had avoided the kinds of clashes that have roiled other universities nationwide amid protests against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
After the arrests at UCSD and the removal of some 50 tents occupied by the protesters, about 300 demonstrators gathered in downtown San Diego to rally outside the county jail, demanding the release of those arrested and chanting “Let them go.”
“I am a faculty member, but today they are my teacher,” Gary Fields, a UCSD professor who teaches a class on dissent and protest, said as he pointed to students outside the jail the afternoon of May 6.
He said school administrators had “turned the police on a completely peaceful and legal demonstration.”
The force was made up of about 200 campus police, California Highway Patrol officers and San Diego County Sheriff’s Department deputies.
Many students were left frustrated by the university’s actions, including its move to close the campus for the day and put classes online.
“Obviously, it’s unfortunate to see riot teams on campus,” said Ivan Ramirez, a member of the Associated Students council who characterized the encampment as “divisive” among students. “Not something that happens every day. But everything gets to a point where action has to be taken — not this level of action, but I think [administrators] were looking at what was happening on other campuses.”
UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said in a statement later in the day that the university encourages peaceful protests, “but this encampment violated campus policy and the law and grew to pose an unacceptable risk to the safety of the campus community.”
Khosla cited “significant dangers” at the encampment, which was set up May 1 just off Library Walk near Geisel Library. He said police had found stakes, propane tanks, metal and plywood shields, aerosol spray cans and a sword and that protesters there had refused access to fire and health inspectors, set up checkpoints and limited free movement.
He said demonstrators were given repeated warnings to disperse before arrests were made.
It was unclear whether efforts had been made by either side to negotiate an end to the encampment before the police moved in.
David FitzGerald, a sociology professor at UCSD, questioned the university’s handling of the protesters and called a statement Khosla had issued May 5 “a cynical lie” used to justify “a violent oppression of peaceful speech by heavily armed police.”
In that statement, Khosla said that “as time passes, the threat and potential for violent clashes increases. The presence of a significant number of non-affiliates in the encampment heightens these concerns.”
On May 5, the encampment had drawn about 200 counterprotesters during a tense but peaceful faceoff.
FitzGerald, who has taught at UCSD since 2007, said the university encourages students to be changemakers.
“Clearly what is happening in Gaza right now with U.S. support is one of the world’s most pressing issues,” he said. “Our students are drawing attention to this, but we are responding by sending in the police to attack them and drag some of them off to jail, when they are really doing what we’ve asked them to do as educators.”
The university said at least 40 of the people who were arrested were students and face possible suspension, while 24 others were either unidentified or not directly affiliated with the university.
Several dozen faculty members signed an open letter to the chancellor and the University of California Board of Regents “imploring” them not to pursue criminal charges or suspend the students or put any marks on their academic record.
“We are asking for them to be lenient,” said Adam Aron, a psychology professor at UCSD. “We don’t want a mark on their records or suspension or criminal charges for standing up with strong and brave voices.”
About 40 faculty, staff and students in the Department of Ethnic Studies had a department call May 6 to discuss holding a no-confidence vote on Khosla, according to Jessica Williams, graduate coordinator in the department.
The crackdown began shortly before 6 a.m., when police massed near the encampment and told protesters there they had 10 minutes to disperse or face arrest. Authorities began arresting demonstrators who stayed, while others nearby chanted “Free, free Palestine.”
Throughout the morning, officers clashed with protesters after authorities quickly dismantled the tent village. It took about an hour to tear it down and cart everything off.
After police cleared the camp, a growing crowd assembled along Library Walk. Dozens of protesters got into shoving matches with police trying to transport people who had been arrested off campus in two buses and tried to block the buses from leaving.
That led to a larger clash with the police force. Smaller skirmishes played out around the Price Center, where arrested protesters were initially being held nearby.
The university said two people suffered minor injuries. Protesters and their supporters alleged police had beaten demonstrators with batons and used pepper spray against them.
Nearly all the people taken into custody were arrested on suspicion of unlawful assembly — a misdemeanor — and were to be booked and immediately released. One person was arrested on suspicion of hindering law enforcement officers, according to the university.
Protest organizers would not allow reporters to talk to the people who had been arrested, saying they were trying to protect them from harassment.
The campus raid came the morning the UCSD chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was scheduled to begin its annual Justice in Palestine Week event.
The protests at UCSD and many other college campuses nationwide have aimed to pressure the schools to divest from Israel and from companies that activists consider hostile to Palestinians, as well as focus attention on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza as a result of the war.
UCSDivest, a coalition that organized the encampment at UCSD, has been calling on the university to end institutional partnerships with weapons manufacturers, including General Atomics and Lockheed Martin. It also highlighted research funding provided to the UC system and the university from the Israeli Ministry of Defense. ◆
