Michael V. Drake Cites Safety Concerns While Ignoring Violent Counterprotests at UCLA
In a letter to the University of California community today, UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D. announced that he would be banning encampments on campus and masking “to conceal identity” while extolling the UC university systems’ freedom of speech and the UC system’s role in creating the “Free Speech Movement.” This edict ignores that masking among protesters is principally used to stop the spread of Covid 19 in protest crowds and gatherings.
The letter said, “We make every effort to nurture free expression, and we provide countless opportunities and venues for our students, faculty, other academic appointees, and staff to safely and lawfully share their diverse viewpoints and beliefs. While the vast majority of protests held on our campuses are peaceful and nonviolent, some of the activities we saw this past year were not.”
A potential prohibition on masking on UC campuses is concerning as it comes at a time when the United States is experiencing a Covid wave that is the largest that it’s been in two years and leads the world in Covid deaths. WHO’s website notes that in the 28 days up until August 4, 2.3 thousand people died of Covid in the United States.
No mention was made of the violent counterprotesters who attacked the Palestine Solidarity Encampment while UCLA’s private security looked on, and the UCLA Chancellor and leadership did nothing to stop the four-hour attack. Three months later, only one person, 18-year-old Edan On, has been arrested in connection with the attack, and the Los Angeles District Attorney refused to press felony charges despite hours of video and photo evidence.
The letter adds, “My office and campus leaders have spent the summer reflecting with students, faculty, staff, Regents, and others on the events of the past year.” However, in a written statement, Graeme Blair, a Faculty for Justice in Palestine at UCLA member, said, “Drake has not accepted student encampment leaders’ offer to meet and discuss investments across the UC.”
Blair added, “At UCLA, the university failed to protect students from outside agitators who attacked with fireworks and bear spray, and then called in the California Highway Patrol to beat up their own students and shoot them with rubber bullets, sending dozens to the hospital. These policies have one simple goal: stop dissent on campus about UC’s complicity in the war on Gaza.”
The Daily Bruin pointed out that Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications Mary Osako claimed in a statement that law enforcement was called in by campus administration at around 12:12 a.m. May 1, but police did not converge on the site until two hours later. At the time of the statement, the attack on students and faculty inside the encampment had been going on for about two hours.
