How California Spent Natural Disaster Funds to Quell Student Protests for Palestine

Cal Poly Humboldt students had been occupying a campus building in solidarity with Palestine for three days when then-university President Tom Jackson decided to bring the demonstration to an end But he didn t think the university could break the occupation specific two dozen members strong on its own In an email to the sheriff of the Humboldt Police Department on April Jackson urged to tap a pool of policing cash clothed in the language of anarchist solidarity the law enforcement mutual aid system In California the Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Fund sets aside million annually to let law enforcement agencies work across jurisdictions to fight natural disasters and other major emergencies In a briefing obtained by The Intercept acceptable LEMA use cases are listed as fires storms flooding earthquakes natural or man-made disasters and other extra ordinary events requiring emergency law enforcement mutual aid on a occurrence by event basis Leadership at California State Polytechnic University Humboldt part of the California State University masses school system was able to tap these funds to bring outside law enforcement onto campus The Intercept discovered in an investigative series on the university playbook for crushing pro-Palestine protests Among more than pages of documentation The Intercept obtained via inhabitants records requests email after email from April and May show chiefs of police and administrators in California s society universities asking outside law enforcement agencies to enter their campuses and clear encampments As Gaza solidarity encampments popped up across college campuses in April and May Jodi Lopez staff services manager at California s Office of Urgency Services informed the leadership of at least population universities including Cal Poly Humboldt that if they were to require mutual aid assistance LEMA would be available to reimburse their expenses attaching a flyer that detailed eligible costs Related Judge Rules Trump Can t Cut UC Funding but UC Leaders Are Still Negotiating a Settlement Cal Poly Humboldt students first entered and staged a peaceful sit-in at Siemens Hall on April According to the documents obtained by The Intercept leadership at the university was promptly in contact with local police departments about bringing the demonstration to an end That day police in riot gear attempted to enter the building and clear out the protesters but students held them off In an episode that would go viral on social media a participant could be seen on surveillance footage hitting officers on their helmets with an empty plastic water jug The cops eventually withdrew from the building marking the start of what would turn into an eight-day occupation Enlisting the help of Humboldt County s Office of Crisis Services the Eureka Police Department and the University of California Police Department Jackson s email on April requested assistance with Reestablish ing control of university buildings and other property and eliminating the threat of domestic violent extremism and criminal behavior on the part of the students setting into motion the plan with which the cops ultimately cleared the hall Ryan Derby then head of the county OES added in his mutual aid request that Cal Poly Humboldt would require the assistance of a total of law enforcement officers with personnel for entry gang trained in tactical room clearing and arrest and control In a declaration emailed to The Intercept Cal Poly Humboldt spokesperson Aileen S Yoo verified that the university formally requested from the state Law Enforcement Officer advocacy through the LEMA request process and noted that Cal Poly Humboldt remains firmly committed to upholding the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment ensuring that all members of our public can speak assemble and express their views A Cal OES spokesperson authenticated in a message to The Intercept that Local law enforcement who provided that help to Cal Poly Humboldt were reimbursed through the LEMA Fund campaign The statewide office is committed to protecting Californians and supporting local partners in times of situation regardless of political views or affiliation the spokesperson wrote Related How Much Money Did the NYPD Waste Quashing Aspirant Protests We Tallied It Up If there were ever a social contract between students and administrators at U S universities that allowed for the operation of insulated on-campus police departments thought to be better attuned to the demands of students that contract was shattered when universities nationwide brought in outside law enforcement to crush the student-led movement for Palestine argued civil liberties advocates who spoke with The Intercept A year before the Trump administration would step up efforts to use police power against masses protest the Palestine solidarity encampments made universities a test development for the tolerance of dissent one that universities overwhelmingly failed I don t even know if we can talk about the trust that students have in their universities But if there was any trust you ruin it when you bring in outside police to harm your own students mentioned Sabiya Ahamed a staff attorney at Palestine Legal If campus closure is required through the weekend revenue loss will grow considerably As Jackson stated in his email Cal Poly Humboldt s budget was at stake Three large events and a dozen smaller events on campus have been canceled Athletic events have been either canceled or moved off main campus he wrote If campus closure is required through the weekend revenue loss will grow considerably University and outside law enforcement would go on to arrest students at Siemens Hall Alongside over a dozen wildfires including the deadly Palisades Fire which destroyed more than homes the raid is at the moment listed on the LEMA website as an example of a development for which funding can be requested While it is far from a secret that outside law enforcement agencies were involved in the clearing of university pro-Palestine encampments these terms of operation and compensation have never previously been informed on in detail Communications between university officers and the outside agencies show that the process took shape in the smooth functioning of bureaucracy with polite breezy exchanges preceding violent crackdowns and raids As the pro-Palestine demonstrations continued the practice of bringing outside law enforcement officers onto campus became increasingly normalized in the University of California system On May Lamine Secka chief of police at UC San Diego wrote to the California Highway Patrol Attached please find a request for assistance to clear out a protest encampment on the UC San Diego campus CHP acting with UCSD and the San Diego County Sheriff s Department would enter the campus in full riot gear on May arresting dozens of aspirant protesters It was not clear if LEMA funds covered that deployment and UCSD did not respond to The Intercept s request for comment Read our complete coverage Chilling Dissent The presence of outside law enforcement officers on campus fundamentally alters the power dynamics of a protest revealed Ahamed of Palestine Legal These police officers who are trained in violent tactics you bring them to campus and they re deploying those tactics against students That is really dangerous she declared Related Police Shot Them in the Head With Rubber Bullets Now UCLA Gaza Protesters Are Suing In several cases that meant radicalizing students who watched militarized police forces haul their classmates away In others it meant injuring peaceful protesters especially at the University of California Los Angeles according to students and faculty who spoke with The Intercept At UCLA university administrators tapped state crisis services funds to bring in outside law enforcement officers and arrest countless students with numerous injured UCLA did not respond to The Intercept s request for comment They were showing us the level of militarization within these departments Dylan Kupsh a fifth-year Ph D learner at UCLA informed The Intercept Even since the encampment they ve been more and more present and bringing in other departments In the face of this repression reported Corey Saylor the research and advocacy director at Council on American-Islamic Relations This generation of college students is extraordinarily brave and principled They ve been willing to sacrifice instruction and career to stand on a very simple human value that genocide is wrong that occupation is wrong that apartheid is wrong The pro-Palestine encampments presented university leaders with a publicity situation forcing them to choose between options ranging from letting the peaceful protests play out to quashing them with the full force of the police Universities almost exclusively chose the latter With encouragement from the state administration California population universities responded to the pupil protests less like dissent and more like a natural tragedy Research promotion provided by the nonprofit newsroom Type Investigations The post How California Spent Natural Catastrophe Funds to Quell Attendee Protests for Palestine appeared first on The Intercept