Five Los Angeles council members joined forces to present a joint motion to prevent municipal resources from being used to arrest peaceful protesters.
“The public deserves accountability for these actions. “Today we join in a motion to request an after-action report on how decisions were made regarding the LAPD’s (Los Angeles Police Department) response to the protests,” he posted on his X site account (formerly Twitter), Los Angeles Councilman Hugo Soto Martínez.
He immediately made another post saying that city resources should not be used to arrest peaceful protesters.
“Last week, police officers stood by for hours and watched as a violent mob attacked protesters on the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) campus. The next day, multiple police agencies used stun grenades and ‘less-lethal’ rubber bullets to clear out the protest, sending multiple students to the hospital and arresting more than 300 protesters.”
He adds that the public deserves responsibility for these actions. “Today we joined in a motion with Council Members Nithya Ramen, Katy Yaroslavsky, Curren Price, Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Eunisses Hernández to ask for an after-the-fact report on how decisions were made in the LAPD’s response to the protests last week. pass”.
He said we need this to be the beginning of the accountability process, not the end.
“Angelenos deserve a thorough, independent investigation into the botched police response to these events, and students in our city should not be punished for exercising their First Amendment rights.”
A camp in solidarity with Palestine surrounding the Israel-Gaza War was established on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles on April 25, and a large counterprotest arose in response on April 28.
On April 30, UCLA declared the camp illegal and ordered participants to vacate or warned them they would face disciplinary action. That same night, a mob attacked the camp, and the violence continued for three hours. Given the events, local police found themselves unable to control the riots.
Between May 1 and 2, dozens of officers broke up the camp and arrested more than 200.
The entire country has witnessed protests for and against the Israel-Gaza conflict in recent months.
The police union that represents UC schools criticized administrators for what they saw as a lack of response to the violence, and also called for an independent investigation.
“UC administrators are solely responsible for the University’s response to protests on campus, and they own all consequences of those responses,” said Federated University Police Officers Association President Wade Stern, in a press release.
On the other hand, on the same issue of anti-Israel protests, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said they cannot let a federal bill, S4136, pass that threatens free expression under the guise of security. national.
“This bill is clearly a reaction to the pro-Palestinian protests. “It gives the government virtually unlimited power to revoke the nonprofit status of accused terrorism-supporting organizations, and could easily be used to discriminate, attack, and silence dissenting voices,” the ACLU said in a statement.
They added that they have already seen government officials mix student protesters with Hamas or other organizations.
“It is not a stretch to imagine how this authority could be used to pressure universities to shut down student activist groups in another excessive and harmful reaction to student and faculty protests.”
They said this bill would allow the government to effectively investigate, harass and dismantle any nonprofit organizations, such as public colleges and universities, that are found to have provided “material support” to terrorist groups, without due process.
“With such vague wording, this could easily be used to pressure universities to shut down student protests or advocacy groups.”