{"id":34141,"date":"2024-06-02T13:08:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-02T20:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=34141"},"modified":"2024-06-02T13:08:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T20:08:05","slug":"police-clear-pro-palestinian-encampment-at-uc-santa-cruz-as-standoff-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/06\/02\/police-clear-pro-palestinian-encampment-at-uc-santa-cruz-as-standoff-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Police clear pro-Palestinian encampment at UC Santa Cruz as standoff continues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Eli Rosenberg<\/a>,\u00a0Danielle Echeverria<\/a>,\u00a0Hannah Hagemann<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updated\u00a0May 31, 2024 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Police evicted protesters at UC Santa Cruz who shut down main roadways coming in and out of the university this week but the standoff continued in the afternoon.Hannah Hagemann \/ The Chronicle<\/em><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SANTA CRUZ \u2014 Police clad in riot gear broke up a pro-Palestinian encampment at UC Santa Cruz Friday, arresting dozens of protesters in the early hours of the morning, the university said, in the latest spate of arrests connected to the on-campus protest movement over the war in Gaza.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Videos shared on social media show officers in body armor moving in, telling the protesters to disperse over a megaphone while the protesters linked arms and chanted in support of Palestine. \u201cCops off campus!\u201d they yelled, and \u201cGlory to the martyrs.\u201d \u201cStop the world for Rafah,\u201d read a sign nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

University officials said about 80 demonstrators were arrested. The protesters had been told that the encampment was unlawful and warned to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor weeks, encampment participants were given repeated, clear direction to remove the encampment and cease blocking access to numerous campus resources and to the campus itself,\u201d said Scott Hernandez-Jason, the assistant vice chancellor for communications and marketing, in a statement. \u201cAnd this morning they were also given multiple warnings by law enforcement to leave the area and disperse to avoid arrest. Unfortunately, many refused to follow this directive and many individuals are being arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive said she understood the \u201cgrief, anger, and frustration\u201d about the events unfolding in Gaza and Israel, but that disruptions on campus in recent weeks \u201cwere harmful to others in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis decision was not made because individuals demonstrated; it was because they have chosen to do so through unlawful actions,\u201d Larive wrote in a statement, adding, \u201cHaving law enforcement remove the unlawful encampment from campus is not an action we wanted to take or have taken lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca Gross, a union organizer at the school, said that some protesters were put into zip tie handcuffs as they were detained by police and others were struck by batons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other organizers connected to the protesters released a statement on Friday, saying that \u201ccomrades at the Gaza solidarity encampment were raided by police from precincts all across northern and central California. The camp has been flattened, students were brutalized by police, and many have been arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement writer\u2019s affiliation and connection to the protesters was unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, other protests continued, even after the encampment\u2019s dispersal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of those picketing moved to rally at the county jail Friday morning, where at least 40 people showed up, including some organizers from United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents graduate student workers in the university system, and is now overseeing a series of strikes to protest the discipline of its members stemming from the protests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gross, the union organizer, said at least three UAW members had been arrested as part of the protests Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On campus, other protesters amassed at the school\u2019s main entrance, at Bay Drive and High Street, around midday, as police worked to keep bystanders away from the area. About 100 protesters faced off with 100 officers in riot gear, together blocking the road.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protesters chanted, \u201cThere is not riot here, why are you in riot gear?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, pro-Palestinian protesters had blocked the two entrances to the campus, forcing the university to move classes online, <\/a>before voluntarily clearing the west entrance.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UC Santa Cruz protests are part of a number of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses<\/a>, both in California and across the country, that have taken on increased intensity in recent weeks. Students are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and for administrators to cut ties with and divest from companies connected to Israel. Police actions to remove protesters have also drawn condemnation and scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, police at UCLA arrested more than 200 protesters<\/a> as they clashed with demonstrators and forced them to disperse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, graduate student workers across the UC system have been striking since May 20<\/a> over claims that UC has disciplined students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations this spring. Both sides have accused each other of unfair labor practices \u2014 the university calls the strike illegal \u2014 and although they are engaged in state-mandated negotiations, UC is also asking California\u2019s Public Employment Relations Board to halt the strike<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the initial walkout starting May 20 at UC Santa Cruz, grad students widened their protest May 27<\/a> to UCLA and UC Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday morning, the executive board of UAW Local 4811, which represents 48,000 academic workers across the UC system, said the protests will expand again next week, with workers at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego walking out on June 3 and those at UC Irvine on June 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gross said she believed workers would stay on strike until amnesty was granted for not just UAW members involved in the protests, but all the protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople really have a right to be really angry right now about what\u2019s going on in Gaza and Rafah,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd our university, which is invested in Israel in a number of ways and invested in the military industrial complex, is doing nothing and has power to. So these students are going to do what they need to do to get that addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea Tamayo contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach Eli Rosenberg: eli.rosenberg@sfchronicle.com. Reach Danielle Echeverria: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 31, 2024|Updated May 31, 2024 1:35 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Eli Rosenberg<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

REPORTER<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eli Rosenberg comes to the San Francisco Chronicle most recently from NBC News, where he covered tech and economic issues. Before that, he was a reporter at the Washington Post for four and a half years, covering labor on the business desk. He has written about misinformation campaigns, politics, immigration issues, and fires and other disasters across the country. He spent years in New York as a metro reporter, at the Brooklyn Paper, Daily News, and the New York Times, and is looking forward to getting back to his roots as a local reporter. He lives in the East Bay with his family, and enjoys cold plunges, beach camping and exploring the Bay Area food scene when he’s not on deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Danielle Echeverria<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

DATA REPORTER<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danielle Echeverria is a reporter for The Chronicle\u2019s Engagement and Breaking News team. She recently completed her Master’s degree in journalism at Stanford University, where she won the Nicholas Roosevelt Environmental Journalism Award for her reporting and covered agriculture, climate change and worker safety. She previously interned The Chronicle on the Business desk, as well as at Big Local News, focusing on data journalism. She is originally from Bakersfield, California.<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Hannah Hagemann<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

WEATHER SCIENCE EDITOR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah Hagemann is The Chronicle’s Weather Science Editor. She comes to The Chronicle from Santa Cruz, where her reporting on the CZU August Lightning Complex fire for NPR and the Santa Cruz Sentinel earned awards and spurred regulatory investigations. Born in San Francisco, she is a lifelong Californian. Hagemann has a master’s in science communication and a background in earth science, most recently earning her wildland firefighter certification. Before entering journalism she worked as a geologist, tracking toxic plumes with drill crews, railroad foremen and regulators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/california\/article\/uc-santa-cruz-gaza-protest-police-19488150.php?utm_content=cta&sid=53b8a5219dbcd4db6500018b&ss=P&st_rid=null&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=headlines&utm_campaign=sfc_morningfix<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Eli Rosenberg,\u00a0Danielle Echeverria,\u00a0Hannah Hagemann Updated\u00a0May 31, 2024 (SFChronicle.com) Police evicted protesters at UC Santa Cruz who shut down main roadways coming in and out of the university this week but the standoff continued in the afternoon.Hannah Hagemann \/ The Chronicle SANTA CRUZ \u2014 Police clad in riot gear broke up a… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34143,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34141\/revisions\/34143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}