Quick Take
About 80 UCSC students gathered outside the Santa Cruz County Jail on Monday afternoon after a Gaza war protest rally attendee was allegedly arrested as the crowd dispersed.
A student was arrested following a rally at UC Santa Cruz on Monday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the start of the Israel-Hamas war, resulting in about 80 students gathering in protest outside the Santa Cruz County Jail.
A witness who did not give their name told Lookout that as people were dispersing from the rally, a police officer on a motorcycle pulled up to their group. The officers allegedly told one attendee that she was prohibited from using a bullhorn and wearing a mask, and asked her to identify herself.
“They could only say that this is a campus ban and you’re not allowed to use these things here,” said the witness.
The use of “masks to intimidate others or to conceal one’s identity after violating a law or policy” is something University of California system President Michael Drake said should not be tolerated during student protests in a recent letter to the leadership of local campuses. However, nearly every rally attendee on Monday wore some form of a face covering.
In addition to the mask issue, Drake asked campus leaders to pursue a zero-tolerance approach to the kind of encampments that took over a portion of the UC Santa Cruz campus in May, along with any protest that blocks roads, paths, entrances or buildings on campus.
The breakup of UC Santa Cruz’s Gaza protest encampment in May included 122 arrests of students and several faculty members. Most are in limbo when it comes to potential criminal charges. The Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s office has yet to receive formal charges from campus police, who have written letters to those who were arrested saying they have a year to file formal charges and implying that it could depend on whether they resume the protest this school year.
As the confrontation escalated, more bystanders began to gather as the officers allegedly pushed the arrestee away from the crowd using “vulgar language,” said the witness. They added that the arrestee is a transgender woman of color, and the officers used incorrect pronouns and the wrong name when addressing the woman, despite being corrected multiple times.
“They began grabbing her and pulling her away, and at that point we were all asking why she was under arrest,” said the witness, adding that about five or six officers were on the scene at that point. “She is calling for help and they’re physically lifting her and shoving her into the car while the police are laughing and making fun of this.”
The witness said the response was “brutal.”
“It’s the second week of classes. It was a peaceful protest where we were educating, and they responded with this amount of violence and repression,” they said.
UCSC police dispatcher Mike Ferguson declined to confirm or deny the arrest. University spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason told Lookout he would look into it, but did not give further information by publication time.
The UC’s Drake has asked the leadership of local campuses to pursue a zero-tolerance approach this fall to the kind of protests the UCSC campus saw last academic year. In a letter earlier this fall, he said that encampments are banned, and that protesters will not be allowed to block roads, paths, entrances or buildings on campus, or to use “masks to intimidate others or to conceal one’s identity after violating a law or policy.”
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