University of California Police officers face pro-Palestinian protesters outside Dodd Hall in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, June 10, 2024. Several protesters were arrested by UCLA police following a new attempt to set up an encampment on the University campus. (Etienne Laurent/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service) — UCLA police, who were called on to handle some of the nation’s largest campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war last spring, are asking for approval to double their stockpile of pepper balls and sponge rounds, obtain eight more projectile launchers and purchase three new drones.
The University of California Board of Regents will consider the requests by UCLA, along with the other nine UC campus police departments, on Thursday. All California law enforcement agencies are required by state law to report annually on the acquisition and use of weapons characterized as “military equipment.” A UC spokesman called the police requests a “routine agenda item” not tied to protests or other particular incidents.
“All of the campus’s requests are for non-lethal alternatives to standard-issue firearms, enabling officers to de-escalate situations and respond without the use of deadly force,” UC spokesman Stett Holbrook said in a statement. “The requested items are essential for maintaining operational readiness, supporting ongoing training programs, and above all, ensuring public safety.”
But several UCLA faculty members and students have spoken out against the requests for more weapons, saying they were wrongfully used against peaceful protesters last spring. A video posted on the social media platform X showed a UCLA police officer armed with a launcher as a phalanx of officers in riot gear with batons pushed back a crowd of protesters contained in a narrow walkway on June 10.
“They’re shooting bullets! They’re f—ing shooting people!” one protester yelled on the video.
Robin D.G. Kelley, a UCLA professor of American history, spent the night in the hospital with his student who was shot in the chest with a projectile during the June 10 protest. The student, hospitalized for two days, suffered a contusion to the heart and a bruised lung and remains so traumatized that they have postponed law school studies, Kelley said.
The report set for review by regents said UC weapons were primarily used for training during calendar year 2023, the time frame examined. The use of weapons during the spring protests will be reported next year. But Kelley and others said their experience with police during the demonstrations raised myriad questions.
“The obvious burning question is this: Why does UCLA or any university campus need this kind of weaponry?” Kelley said. “Clearly the weapons are not to keep mobs off campus; they are to be used against our students and us.”
The issue drew fire from some speakers in public comments at the regents meeting Wednesday at UCLA. Isabella Arzeno Soltero, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering who joined UCLA last year, said she was appalled to witness the campus “flooded” with police and private security last spring and the deployment of military weapons against students, faculty and staff who were peacefully protesting.
“The UC should prioritize safety through de-escalation, not militarization,” Arzeno Soltero told the regents, asking them to vote down the weapons requests. “We should reallocate these funds to resources that enhance education and the welfare of our students, not tools of oppression.”
Two members of UCLA’s undergraduate student government, President Adam Tfayli and Representative Tommy Contreras, said they were outraged by the weapons request. They said they could only assume that UCLA was stockpiling weapons to use against student protesters this fall.
“This is a direct assault on students and an outright betrayal of our educational values,” said Contreras, a third-year student majoring in political science and public affairs.
The UC board memo on the issue said that use of the equipment last year drew no complaints and did not result in any violations of university policy. No UC campus receives surplus military equipment from the U.S. Department of Defense, the memo said.
University weapons requests
UCLA police are requesting up to 3,000 more pepper balls to add to their inventory of 1,600; up to 400 more sponge and foam rounds, double the current stockpile of 200; eight more projectile launchers and three new drones.
UC Berkeley is requesting four new drones, a “kinetic breaching tool” to force open locked doors, another hazardous devices robot and 300 more sponge rounds.
UC Merced wants five projectile launchers and 100 sponge rounds, requests approved last year but not yet purchased.
UC San Francisco is asking for 11 rifles, 10 projectile launchers and three drones. The department requested more weapons because it added 16 officers as it took over policing at St. Francis and St. Mary’s medical centers, Holbrook said.
UC Santa Cruz has also requested two drones, which were approved last year but not yet purchased.
Holbrook said the drones will assist in search and rescue operations and aid public safety by providing “essential support in crime scene reconstruction by delivering comprehensive aerial data.”
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