Dozens arrested as police descend on pro-Palestine encampment at UCSC

Dozens of police officers in riot gear arrested about 80 pro-Palestinian protesters and moved to disband an encampment at UC Santa Cruz’s main entrance overnight Thursday into Friday, a dramatic escalation in ongoing protests and labor actions that have rocked the campus for weeks.

In a statement Friday morning, UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive said police officers had removed an encampment and barricades that had been set up at the base of campus since Tuesday and that “a number of individuals were arrested.”

“Having law enforcement remove the unlawful encampment from campus is not an action we wanted to take or have taken lightly,” she wrote. “For the past month, we have sought to de-escalate campus disruptions and road blockades, and encouraged the voluntary disbanding of the unlawful encampments. The individuals at the encampments have been repeatedly informed about the policies that their actions violated.”

In an email, UCSC spokesperson Abby Butler said police arrested approximately 80 demonstrators.

By Friday morning, roughly 100 police officers from as far away as Modesto, Sacramento and San Francisco, along with officers from the Santa Cruz Police Department and California Highway Patrol, remained on campus Friday morning as about 200 protesters continued to block access to the school’s main entrance.

The standoff between police and protesters began shortly before midnight, when members of the UCSC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which has been staging an encampment on campus since May 1, posted a notice on Instagram saying a police raid was “imminent” and urging students and other supporters to assemble at the base of campus.

“UCSC has called in 150+ police from Watsonville, San Jose, UC Berkeley and UC Davis,” the group wrote on Instagram. “Expecting police tonight or the following nights.”

In a live feed posted on the group’s Instagram, students could be heard saying they had been ordered to disperse and that police were surrounding them from multiple sides. By 2 a.m., the group had swelled to hundreds of students standing opposite dozens of police officers, many in riot gear. Other students watched from the hills above the main entrance, shouting, “leave our students alone” and “no cops on campus,” along with chants of solidarity.

In the livestream footage, an officer could be heard repeatedly ordering protesters to leave or risk being arrested. “Disperse now you will not be arrested,” an officer repeated into a loudspeaker. “If you don’t want to be subject to arrest, leave the area immediately.”

Protesters chanted, flew flags and played drums and called out to police to “take your own advice” and leave the campus.

The overnight altercation represents the most intense confrontation between student protesters and law enforcement since protesters set up a Palestinian solidarity encampment on campus at the beginning of May. That encampment moved May 20 from Quarry Plaza to a gravel lot near the main campus entrance.

Students have shut off access to the school’s main entrance since Tuesday, prompting UCSC to move classes online and triggering increasingly tough language from senior administrators urging protesters to end the blockade.

On Thursday afternoon, UCSC officials said the west entrance to campus was open, while the main entrance remained blockaded by protesters. In a message posted online, campus provost and executive vice chancellor Lori Kletzer and other faculty leaders said UCSC would continue with remote classes on Friday in an effort to “depopulate the campus” amid the ongoing disruptions. 

“Our students have endured COVID, fire, power outages and other losses of educational opportunity; they deserve better,” the administrators wrote. “We call on these protesters to immediately reopen full access to the campus and return to protesting in a manner consistent with both our community values and our student code of conduct. Denying instructional access is not free speech.”

A strike by graduate student workers opposed to the handling of pro-Palestinian encampments began mid-May at UCSC and earlier this week spread to UCLA and UC Davis; on Friday afternoon, their union said that it planned to extend its strike to three new UC campuses next week: Santa Barbara, San Diego and Irvine. 

The University of California said it was making another legal bid to force an end to the strike. Last Friday, a state labor board rejected the UC’s request for an injunction to end the labor action; earlier this week, the UC said it had filed an amended request for an injunction with the California Public Employment Relations Board, which oversees labor issues involving public sector workers in the state.

– Tamsin McMahon contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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FOR THE RECORD: This story has been updated with comments from UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive and official arrest figures.

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