The UC Board of Regents recently approved funding for more non-lethal weapons like pepper balls, sponge rounds, and projectile launchers for their campuses, including UCLA, which begins the fall quarter today. Before the summer break, violent confrontations broke out at UCLA related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Officers made widespread arrests and dismantled the large protest encampment in front of Royce Hall. Then the UC president banned new encampments (particularly ones that blocked pathways and buildings) and face coverings meant to hide a person’s identity.
Teresa Watanabe, education reporter for the LA Times, explains that after spring’s protests, students, faculty, and administrators were concerned that the situation was getting out of control. Thus came statewide legislation to make protest rules uniformly enforced across all CSU and UC campuses.
“Under that mandate, President Michael Drake of the UC did issue a system-wide guidance about: These are okay protest activities, we want to encourage free speech; but going forward, zero tolerance on things like encampments, blocking passageways, buildings, and concealing your identity if you are in the course of committing a crime or breaking campus rules,” she notes.
During this fall term, some large protests have already happened at UC Berkeley, but they were peaceful, so school officials didn’t need to call police, she says.
However, the relative calmness on campuses may change. She points out that National Students for Justice in Palestine called for a “week of rage” from Oct. 7 to 11 across U.S. campuses — to mark what they’re calling the Gaza genocide.
UC officials say that campus police’s requests for extra non-lethal weapons is routine and not related to the Gaza protests, Watanabe reports.
“Routine requests have been done every year since 2021 … in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests. And no one really paid attention to it for 2022 and 2023. But because of the protests over the Israel-Hamas war, everybody looked at the requests,” she explains. “And in fact, UCLA has upped up its request. I mean, their request for 3000 pepper balls was doubling their inventory of 1600. They also doubled their request for sponge projectiles, which can be very, very harmful. I know of one UCLA student who was shot in the chest with one of these, and spent two days in the hospital. So they're not saying it's for the protests upcoming, but everyone is concerned that they will be.”