Police Clear Buildings, Arrest 35 Protestors at Cal Poly Humboldt Pro-Palestine Occupation

The two buildings occupied by Pro-Palestinian protestors on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus in Arcata were cleared by dozens of law enforcement officers from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department and the University police department early on Tuesday, leading to 35 arrests.

Protests on the Arcata campus began shortly after protests nationwide started just over two weeks ago on. Pro-Palestinian protestors want Universities to divest from Israel, or redirect university funds away from programs in favor of or benefiting Israel into other areas.

Protestors are hoping to influence federal policy on Israel over the number of civilians killed in Gaza since October. At Cal Poly Humboldt, protestors have also demanded the resignation of Cal Poly Humboldt President Tom Jackson and Chief of Staff Mark Johnson for refusing to divest.

Growing frustration by protestors for their demands not being met led them to occupy two buildings on campus on April 22nd: Siemens Hall and Nelson Hall East. With protestors refusing to leave and no plan to clear the buildings, the University announced over the weekend that the campus would be closed until the end of the semester on May 10th. This action seemed to spur the university, which brought in several law agencies, including the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department and the campus police, to deal with the occupied building situation.

Meanwhile, nationwide, police actions and university discipline also increased. At Columbia University in New York, dozens of protestors began to be suspended for their parts in the protest. An occupation of a building on campus by protestors on Monday led to Columbia to threaten expulsion of all inside on Tuesday should they not leave. At Yale in Connecticut, many protestors were arrested and the rest abandoned their encampment following threats of suspension by the University. In California, 93 protestors were arrested at USC in Los Angeles. At UCLA, police have done little as protest groups have clashed in recent days. New encampments and protests have also been set up at Universities like Sacramento State, UC Irvine, and UC Riverside.

Following in the footsteps of police action at USC, Cal Poly Humboldt officials had enough and gave the green light to law enforcement officials on Tuesday morning. At 2:30 A.M., the combined law enforcement group entered both halls. They quickly cleared both, and arrested 35 people in the process. Most were students, with a few members of the media and professors ending up in cuffs as well. Initial charges included unlawful assembly, vandalism, conspiracy and the assault of police officers. The University was also likely to take action against those arrested.

“The University Police Department is deeply grateful to the local and statewide agencies that lent support to our campus during this event,” University Police Department Chief Peter Cress said on Tuesday. “The support was critical in restoring an environment on campus where learning and work occur safely.”

Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal added, “I understand the widespread frustration caused by the campus closure, threatening behavior, and lawlessness we’ve witnessed over the past week. By restoring order, we’ve sent a clear message that the criminal and dangerous activities we experienced were not peaceful protests, but outright criminal behavior, which is unacceptable.”

35 Arrested at Cal Poly Humboldt

To add insult to injury, the University released a statement replying to protestors demands, saying that they would be giving them nothing. Cal Poly Humboldt even pointed out that they have no direct investment and less than 1% indirect investment with Israel and no direct ties to Israeli universities, meaning that even if they wanted to, nothing could be done to even remotely divest.

“This is a difficult day, it breaks my heart to see it, and truly nobody wanted to see things come to this,” Cal Poly Humboldt President Tom Jackson Jr. said. “We’ve all watched this with great concern, and always with the sincere hope that it would be resolved peacefully. Unfortunately, serious criminal activity that crossed the line well beyond the level of a protest had put the campus at ongoing risk.”

Protest experts told the Globe on Tuesday that the Cal Poly Humboldt protests were bound to fail, and that police action there could lead to more major police action at campuses across the U.S.

“Those Cal Poly protestors did not do their homework,” researcher Sandy Crane, who studies college protest movements, told the Globe on Tuesday. “Their demands were not only unreasonable, but the University literally couldn’t do anything about them. There was nothing to divest from. If it had been a plain cease-fire protest, ok, maybe they could have had something. But they just didn’t. So all those arrests and occupying the building were for nothing.”

“Even worse for all protestors, the police showed that buildings could be safely cleared and that arrests could be made easily. You bet that law enforcement departments are taking notes on this one. Columbia wants their building on campus cleared ASAP. If those expulsion threats don’t work, then they might take a page from Humboldt and have police go in at the dead of night. UCLA too. Clear the encampment at night. Protestors demands nowhere are being met. And Cal Poly Humboldt just showed that a protest could be peacefully taken down. Yale too. Clearcut police action and valid threats of suspensions and expulsions. They know the path now.”

Meanwhile, Cal Poly Humboldt is slowly returning to normal on Tuesday, with the campus now starting recovery from the millions of dollars worth of damages left by the protestors.

“Those protestors made me ashamed of going here,” said Ashley, a student on campus to the Globe on Tuesday. “They obviously didn’t care about their fellow students.”

More on the Gaza protests on campuses across the state are expected to come out soon.