In the early hours of Tuesday morning, about 25 people were arrested after a convergence of over 100 police officers in riot gear arrived at the Cal Poly Humboldt Gaza occupation. The riot police arrived around 2:30 a.m. No injuries were reported by the university or a legal observer on Tuesday.
Around 9 p.m. Monday a police car playing a prerecorded message arrived, warning protesters they were in an unlawful assembly and those remaining could be subject to projectiles and chemicals. For the next few hours, a police car would drive up to an entrance and play the message, giving protesters 15 minutes to leave. At first, protesters would rush to the barrier with the car and call on the police to “go home.” As the night progressed and more students trickled out of the quad and recognized the pattern, the response became smaller.
The occupation contracted from hundreds to closer to a few dozen over the past week, and it was the same Monday evening which began with a protest of hundreds outside the occupation near the library circle. Many left the campus as the night wore on following a dance circle, linking arms in front of barriers, and rushing from one barricade to the next to try and secure the entrances.
Organizers were outside the courthouse Tuesday morning in Eureka, ready to post bail for protesters. As of 10:30 a.m., at least 10 were set to be released. Rick Toledo, an organizer for Students for Democratic Society who was coordinating the bailouts, said those arrested include students, community members and at least one faculty member, Rouhollah Aghasaleh, who vowed to start a hunger strike. At least one journalist, Ademli Ruiz from KRCR, was detained. KMUD news reported a total of three journalists were detained at the scene.
Tuesday, police had blocked off entrances to campus to everyone — faculty, students and media. A hard closure was announced earlier by the university. Jose Quezada, Times-Standard freelancer reported being escorted off campus by police and seeing barricades taken down and fewer tents Tuesday morning. A police officer blocking an entrance told the Times-Standard that officers were cleaning up the mess.
The protest, which began last Monday, called for a cease-fire and divestment from Israel amid the war in Gaza. Protesters had occupied two buildings, Siemens Hall and Nelson Hall, and constructed barricades on footpaths riot police could be seen breaking early Tuesday morning over livestreams. A university news release said law enforcement cleared and secured both buildings and the area nearby, which Monday hosted dozens of tents, a community kitchen, a first aid tent, extensive barriers, graffiti and shrines to those killed by the Israeli government in the war.
The police force was from a variety of agencies, swarming the community from outside agencies including the San Francisco Police Department and California Highway Patrol. The university accused the Siemens Hall occupying students of damaging $1 million worth of university property.
Toledo, who arrived at the courthouse around 4 a.m., said thousands for the bail fund were raised from community members and national groups. Bail was set at $10,000 for many of those arrested.
“I’m bailing them out, even if they’re a journalist, a student, faculty,” he said.
“Those arrested faced a range of different charges depending on individual circumstances including unlawful assembly, vandalism, conspiracy, assault of police officers, and others. In addition, students could face discipline for conduct violations while any University employees arrested could face disciplinary action,” the university news release said.
District Attorney Stacey Eads said on Tuesday morning that she had not received any police reports regarding the arrests or filed charges yet.
Monday night a California Faculty Association representative told the Times-Standard no punishments for participating Faculty had yet been reported, but it remains to be seen how the arrests will change things. Some students were emailed interim suspension notices barring them from campus. The CFA Humboldt executive board condemned the arrests and called the actions “yet another dangerous escalation of their response to a peaceful campus demonstration.”
One junior, Jasmine Jolly, who has received a notice said “it feels like fear mongering, it feels like a scare tactic and an attempt to get students off campus by threatening their academic standing,” noting the suspended students received the same list of violations with the same case number.
Students are organizing to protest the decision. “Our actions were non-violent; we are conscientious objectors, not aggressors. Our movement has joined with faculty and the community at large in solidarity. Our coalition is growing and the strength of our call for peace grows with it. As opposed to the university administration, we have not faced our detractors with brutality or intimidation, and yet we have been treated as though we are a danger to the campus,” a release from the suspended students said.
Sage Alexander can be reached at 707-441-0504