NIGHT OF CHAOS

Red Tape May Have Contributed to UCLA Counterprotest Madness

A bloody clash at the UCLA encampment left many wondering why campus security stood by for hours without intervening.

The failure of police to prevent a violent pro-Israel counterprotest attack at UCLA last month appeared to result from poor university policy and administrative delays, a New York Times investigation found. After interviewing witnesses and reviewing footage from the incident—which left more than 30 pro-Palestinian protesters injured, with no arrests of attackers—the Times found that UCLA relied too heavily on a small force of contract security guards, who were ill-equipped to deal with the rapid descent into violence. Though the state and city both dispatched backup to the scene, it took hours for these officers to reach campus. “Either the university was hesitant to do anything to get law enforcement involved, or law enforcement was dealing with authorization issues and political considerations from elected officials,” Ed Davis, a former police commissioner, told the Times. The university followed a policy that avoided calling police unless “only if absolutely necessary to protect the physical safety of our campus community,” according to a community message sent shortly after the Gaza encampment went up.