More Campus Disorder at UCLA (Students for Justice in Palestine)

On April 30, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at UCLA, which is currently under suspension, attempted to hold a movie event on campus showing a pro-Palestinian propaganda piece. UCLA told them they were not authorized to hold such an event on campus. Yet, SJP proceeded to hold it anyway. UCLA, to its credit, sent in the campus police to break it up. The demonstrators then marched around to different parts of the campus and interrupted traffic outside the campus.

Along the way, a police officer was assaulted, and a Jewish student carrying an Israeli flag was also assaulted by a group of the pro-Hamas thugs. His account can be viewed in this Fox News interview with Trace Gallagher here. Reportedly, three of the demonstrators were arrested.

Here is how the Daily Bruin is reporting the incident.

The official statement from UCLA can be viewed here.

This latest incident comes in the wake of a decision by the LA City Attorney’s office not to proceed against hundreds of students who were arrested on the UCLA campus (as well as the University of Southern California) during last year’s encampment fiasco. The City  Attorney’s Office cited the lack of cooperation from the schools in identifying offenders.

“In a statement, the City Attorney’s Office stated that after reviewing more than 300 arrests from the mass protests in April and May of 2024, criminal cases were declined for most people “for evidentiary reasons or due to a university’s failure or inability to assist in identification or other information needed for prosecution.”

-Orange County Register

In short, things are a mess at UCLA. For years, former Chancellor Gene Block allowed the climate of campus anti-Semitism to fester.  In March, the Justice Department (under new management) filed a brief in federal court supporting complaints filed by Jewish students and one professor in connection with last year’s campus disorders. 

The response by UCLA and the campus police is encouraging, but words must be followed by action.  SJP was already under suspension for its obnoxious protest held in front of a UC Regent’s home in Brentwood, in which the outside of his home was vandalized with paint last February. Now is the time for UCLA to show it is serious and ban SJP permanently.