Pro-Palestine protests continue at USC, despite arrests
The mood at Founders Park on Friday was optimistic even as university leadership cracks down.
Two days after the Los Angeles Police Department arrested nearly 100 protesters, students and faculty at the University of Southern California rallying against the war in Gaza are undeterred.
On Friday afternoon on April 26, USC community members protesting the war in Gaza and U.S. support for it gathered again in the center of campus, calling for USC to disclose and divest from any investments it has supporting Israel and the ongoing war in Gaza.
At 10 a.m. there were 20 people at most in Founders Park. By 2 p.m. there were approximately 200. The majority were students, with some faculty in support. At least one speaker was a guest from the Stop LAPD Spying coalition. The afternoon though was dominated by students speaking to each other, leading chants such as “USC, shame on you!” and students forming a protective ring around the park while Muslim community members prayed. Protesters painted banners, started to set up tents for an encampment and remained in high spirits despite the events of Wednesday, April 24.
That evening the LAPD and members of USC’s Department of Public Safety told people protesting in Alumni Park — where the main commencement ceremony was set to be held — to disperse or be arrested. Many were forced off campus and 93 were arrested. Reports from the Los Angeles Times and others say protesters were peaceful, at worse throwing water at police, but police jabbed at students and showed up in riot gear. There was at least one instance of an officer pointing a less-than-lethal weapon in the face of protesters at close range — which can make them very lethal — and Annenberg Media has video of a rubber bullet being fired at crowds off campus. The Daily Trojan, USC’s independent student newspaper (disclosure: I am a USC alumnus and was on the editorial staff for the Daily Trojan for multiple semesters), reported that DPS tried to block encampments but lacked an actual policy:
DPS officers informed students that they were not allowed to lay blankets on the ground at Founders Park but did not cite a specific policy. When asked if there was such a policy, DPS told the Daily Trojan that they were actively looking for a policy that they could enforce.
On Thursday, organizers of the Gaza Solidarity Occupation held a press conference, outlining instances of violence committed against protesters by DPS. 93 people were arrested; they’re being charged with trespassing.
Also on Thursday USC canceled its main commencement event outright, leaving only individual department commencements. This comes less than two weeks after valedictorian Asna Tabassum was blocked from speaking at the event. Tabassum had been accused by pro-Israel groups of anti-Semitic rhetoric. USC’s only comment when her speech was canceled was that it was done so in order to “maintain the safety of our campus and students.” It’s still unclear what safety concerns the university is specifically concerned about. Several student groups and faculty members have spoken out in support of Tabassum. After Tabassum’s speech was canceled, 11 members of USC’s Muslim Advisory Committee resigned in protest.
One of the several closed gates onto campus at USC on Friday, April 26.
However on Friday afternoon the mood in Founders Park — just on the other side of Trousdale Parkway from Alumni Park, the main strip on campus — was defiant and optimistic. Ahead of speakers and before the circle around praying members, people gathered in the park, bringing water and art supplies for banners that read slogans such as “Bombing kids is not ‘self defense’” and “We love you Gaza.” One speaker (this reporter was unable to verify his name) called the protest “the real America” and thanked everyone who came out and supported their fellow students. Alongside Muslim protesters, the park was full of people from different backgrounds, including several Jewish protesters wearing shirts with the slogan “Not in my name.”
One faculty member, a professor who declined to give her name but said she was with the USC Palestine Justice Faculty Group, said that she was shocked by the scale of the university and police’s response on Wednesday.
“I wasn’t surprised, having paid attention to what’s going on at Columbia, the level of basically state-sponsored repression that universities have been calling on for student protests,” she said. “I wasn’t surprised by it but the scale surprised me. The sheer number of police, the riot gear, the surrounding [of protesters.]”
Only a few hundred feet away, soon to be graduates posed in front of the Tommy Trojan statue for photographs while chairs were set up on lawns for different colleges’ commencement ceremonies. The spring semester classes were ending. It’s now study days, ahead of finals week. Much of daily campus life was still ongoing, although signs of the university’s response were evident. Many of the entrances to and from campus were blocked. At least two of the seven were still open, but even campus security at the McClintock entrance were unsure if any more were, and where. Due to the size of the campus’s perimeter, some students took other methods. I saw more than one student hopping the fence rather than go around a long route in order to get to the other side of Jefferson Boulevard.
USC, meanwhile, appears not to know about the Streisand Effect. Late Friday afternoon, USC President Carol Folt sent out a letter addressing the protests and arrests. In it she writes “This week, Alumni Park became unsafe. No one wants to have people arrested on their campus. Ever. But, when long-standing safety policies are flagrantly violated, buildings vandalized, DPS directives repeatedly ignored, threatening language shouted, people assaulted, and access to critical academic buildings blocked, we must act immediately to protect our community.”
It is unclear what instances of assault she is referring to and what safety policies were “flagrantly violated.” At the same time, the Office of the Senior Vice President for Administration sent out a letter saying that between Saturday to the end of finals on May 8, the university is not allowing “social events or disruptive activities.” Only three entrances will be open — McCarthy, McClintock, and Watt Way, leaving anyone trying to enter on the long stretch of the campus along Vermont Avenue out of luck. This is happening while the university works “to establish an operations protocol that will ensure a safe, secure, and smoothly running campus during these unprecedented times,” the letter said, without mentioning the protests. It’s unclear how exactly USC expects there to not be any social activities at the end of a school year on a college campus, among other things.
The encampment protest at USC this week is one of dozens that have sprung up at universities and college campuses nationwide. Although Israel’s war in Gaza has been going on since October and more than 35,000 people have died in Israel and the Occupied Territories since Oct. 7, these protests have taken off in the last two weeks, with new solidarity encampments popping up almost every day. Columbia University in New York City has received the most attention, but students have protested across Georgia, California, Ohio and more. In California, UCLA started its own shortly after the USC arrests. They’ve been met by both calls for sending in the National Guard — calls made by leaders and members of Congress — and violence from campus and local police. There are too many to list, but they’ve been extreme, with police showing up in full riot gear, with plate carriers, helmets and less-than-lethal firearms. At Ohio State, the university’s newspaper confirmed that police were on roof tops with “long-range firearms as part of their protocol,” after arrests had begun. One that’s made the rounds and is quite horrifying is the case of Professor Caroline Fohlin at Emory University, who approached police telling them to get away from a student they had slammed on the ground. Fohlin was in turn grabbed and thrown onto the sidewalk. She’s now been charged, somehow, with battery against a police officer.
According to The Appeal, which tracked the confirmed university protests, arrests and what if any response local prosecutors have in regard to them, at least 670 people have been arrested at 18 campuses. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office noted to The Appeal that these kinds of cases — which it had not received — were usually misdemeanor trespassing charges, which the City Attorney’s office handles. This newsletter also reached out to the City Attorney’s office but as of press time has not heard back.
The Palestine Justice Faculty Group member I spoke with said that she hopes there isn’t a repeat of Wednesday’s crackdown. She criticized the administration’s rhetoric on what has been happening since the encampment started.
“The university’s line has been that these are outside agitators. These are students, these are faculty members, members of the community here, so there’s no basis for that,” she said.
At USC the protest shows no signs of stopping. While Friday afternoon saw no interference or response from campus security or police, at 6 p.m. tents were set up and DPS and LAPD were on the scene. Despite a vague warning that it would soon be considered “after hours,” university and city police eventually left, according to the Daily Trojan. As of press time, the protest and encampment continues.