A continent's width away, from Florida I have been following accounts of a riot on the UCLA campus Tuesday night, largely in The Los Angeles Times. From my admittedly distant vantage point, I have some lingering questions.
There was a 1 1/2 hour delay between the time that "police" arrived on the UCLA campus on Tuesday night – early Wednesday morning, and the time that they went to work apparently to keep protestors apart from counter-protestors.
The counter-protestors apparently came ready to rumble. They were also armed with fireworks. They beat people up, and the reporting is not disputed that the people that the counter-protestors beat up included UCLA student journalists. There are questions to follow up on, including:
Why did the police stand by while these people attacked the protestors and their camp on the UCLA campus?
Were the police concerned for their own safety from these counter-protestors?
Were the police delaying their response to see if the counter-protestors were successful in their goal of destroying the camp – it was not disputed that they tried to tear it down -- so that the police eventually would not have to?
Or were the police that arrived about 1:30 AM waiting for reinforcements, until at 3 AM (by which time it is not disputed that the so-called "counter-protestors" had mostly left the scene), the police acted?
There were reports of injured protestors from the camp. The reports vary between 15 and 25 injured protestors so far. But there are no reports about how many so-called counter-protestors were injured – or arrested, for that matter – if any.
How many counter-protestors were injured and how many were taken to the hospital?
How many counter-protestors were arrested and if they were, were they armed when they were arrested and if so, how?
There was at least one report that L.A. Fire Department EMT's treated protestors.
Did the EMT's also treat any counter-protestors and if so, do they know where these people came from before they arrived at the camp on the UCLA campus?
Finally, the California Highway Patrol was on the UCLA campus. Reports reflect that L.A. Mayor Karen Bass urged UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to call in the Los Angeles Police Department, a probably more professional organization and one certainly more used to dealing with protests and crowd control than anyone at CHP. However, Mary Osako, identified in the reporting as a UCLA Vice Chancellor for UCLA Strategic Communications, issued a statement which said that UCLA "called law enforcement for mutual aid support."
How did the Highway Patrol end up on a college campus that night?
I have saved my biggest lingering question for last. The reporting is clear that the "pro-Palestinian encampment set up on UCLA's campus" was largely peaceful and non-violent. That was not clear to me until I re-read, and re-read again, all the Los Angeles Times reporting in particular. This is not a "he said, she said" or "both sidesism" kind of story. The so-called counter-protestors came to do harm, and they did. The campers fought back to defend themselves.
Why have journalists and the UCLA administration not made it clear that this unprovoked attack came from outside agitators and that the police were not called in on Tuesday night – Wednesday morning of this week because of anything the campers had done – other than to exercise their First Amendment rights? (After all, it was not until the following night, Wednesday night into Thursday morning, that the police arrived to dismantle the camp at UCLA.)
Or is that the point.
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