UCLA Disappoints Everybody
[guest post by JVW]
I’m not really up for crafting a long post about what has been going on at UCLA over the past couple of weeks, so let me just provide some bullet points and links:
* UCLA erred when they allowed protesters to congregate in Dickson Plaza over the past week. They seem to have believed that by being lenient and tolerant they could contain the disruption, but all they did was encourage lots of other activists.
* Much of this falls on Chancellor Gene Block, who plans to retire at the end of this academic year. He goes out in disgrace, having bungled this situation from beginning to end.
* Somebody up high in administration ordered campus police and the hired security contractors to have a light touch, which meant that they refused to intervene when pro-Hamas activists began to harass “Zionist” students. Somebody should lose their job over this.
* Had not pro-Israel students attempted unsuccessfully to breech Fort Intifada on Monday night, I doubt very much that UCLA would have finally come to the conclusion that allowing activists to commandeer a huge chunk of campus for their own use might not be a great strategy for maintaining campus harmony. Those counter-protesters are the ones who helped bring this nonsense to a close.
* You can watch what happened last night on this five-hour video from the local ABC Affiliate. Here are the key parts:
5:00 – LAPD approaches the encampment, protesters rush to confront them in response.
10:20 – LAPD beats an ignoble retreat. Was this just a test to see how the protesters would react, or was this a complete strategic failure? Either way, it was a horribly bad look and only served to embolden the pro-Hamas crowd.
57:30 – California Highway Patrol officers approach a mostly unprotected entryway to the encampment.
1:04:49 – CHP officers begin pushing through the rabble to enter the encampment.
1:28:24 – CHP officers approach a second entry point to the encampment and mobilize around it. It is now approximately 3:15 am.
1:38:48 – CHP Officers begin tearing down the fortifications that the terrorists have built up over the past week.
1:47:04 – Camera view split-screens to ground-level where we can start watching the terrorists being arrested.
* The initial arrests go rather smoothly, as they were mostly silly children who were probably just as interested in accumulating social media likes as they were in protesting the plight of the Palestinian people. These kids generally let themselves be guided away without any resistance (#Resistance, that should read). About an hour in, however, law enforcement begins encountering the more hardcore elements of the activist groups who try to resist arrest. Law enforcement largely appears to be content to wait out this gang of miscreants, and instead focuses on removing all of the barriers erected in the encampment.
* At 4:40 am, approximately three hours into the video, law enforcement decides to clear out Royce Hall, the venerable campus landmark which houses an excellent concert hall as well as assorted classrooms and offices. I’m sure the little jerks did at least some degree of vandalism in the building, based upon all the debris that litters the area surrounding the building. This is the sort of thing which absolutely infuriates me.
* There is an interview with one of the alleged student organizers at the 3:56:30 point in the video. She may or may not be stupid, I cannot tell, but she is truly delusional. She acts surprised that the administration was no longer willing to drag negotiations on interminably and actually decided to end the little scamps’ hissy fit.
That’s about it. From what I see on the video, it appears that law enforcement continued to make progress on arrests as the morning light began to break. I would imagine that there is a giant mess on campus today which hard-working maintenance crews will be called upon to clean. Because if there is one hallmark of privileged left-wing protest, it is that it always leaves behind messes for the proletariat to deal with. UCLA will probably disappoint all of us by going as lightly as possible on these reprobates, but that’s what we would come to expect from the stultified echo chamber of wokeism. Nor do I have much faith that UCLA will put in place procedures to prevent something like this from happening again and probably soon, especially if the November election enrages them.
Two and three decades from now I am sure some middle-aged radicals, many of whom will no doubt end up in one of the various sewers of modern academia, will look back in pride on their participation in these events, but I am confident that history will eventually treat them much as it treats fellow-travelers for the Soviet Union from the 1920s-50s: somewhat well-meaning, somewhat stupid, somewhat malevolent, but completely delusional and naive. It’s just a shame that they are able to do so much collateral damage in the meantime.
UPDATE
Collin Rugg has some footage of the aftermath of the area on the UCLA campus where the budding terrorists held their slumber party. It won’t surprise you to see what a colossal mess it is. Everybody that was arrested this morning needs to be fined an amount commensurate with the costs of clean-up (and while we’re at it, the costs of the extra security and the multi-agency task force which broke up the party) and should have grades, transcripts, and degrees withheld until they do so.
NEW: UCLA campus looks like a landfill after pro-Palestine protesters, many of whom are also environmental activists, demolished the campus.
Police are dismantling the fortified camp after an intense night.
Police fired flash-bangs at the protesters last night before… pic.twitter.com/d70wBEmxD6
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 2, 2024
– JVW
Oh boy is campus going to be fun in the run up to Thanksgiving break if Donald Trump wins in November.
JVW (b02843) — 5/2/2024 @ 12:08 pmLet me hearken back to something I wrote earlier in the post: I don’t think campus administrators want to be in the position of establishing the idea that the only way for normal students to get an illegal encampment removed from campus is to start a fight with the campers. But that is exactly where administrative pusillanimity leaves you.
JVW (b02843) — 5/2/2024 @ 12:12 pmUPDATE
JVW (b02843) — 5/2/2024 @ 12:46 pmCollin Rugg has some footage of the aftermath of the area on the UCLA campus where the budding terrorists held their slumber party. It won’t surprise you to see what a colossal mess it is. Everybody that was arrested this morning needs to be fined an amount commensurate with the costs of clean-up (and while we’re at it, the costs of the extra security and the multi-agency task force which broke up the party) and should have grades, transcripts, and degrees withheld until they do so.
JNW’s proposal that student participants who were identified as being in the vandalized areas of campus be forced to pay the costs associated with their actions before receiving transcripts and/or degrees is one of the saner suggestions to emerge from these troubling events.
John Boddie (dcf99c) — 5/2/2024 @ 2:10 pmFrom Rose Bird to Gene Block, California has a rich history of bleeding hearts who are soft on crime.
I blame California’s citizens, and the political climate they have created.
norcal (dcbafa) — 5/2/2024 @ 2:13 pmI am confident that history will eventually treat them much as it treats fellow-travelers for the Soviet Union from the 1920s-50s: somewhat well-meaning, somewhat stupid, somewhat malevolent, but completely delusional and naive.
I’m not. Angela Davis and Bill Ayers have done all right.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/2/2024 @ 2:28 pmFrom Rose Bird to Gene Block, California has a rich history of bleeding hearts who are soft on crime.
There was a time when the good people of California would show the door to folks like that. Bird, Grodin & Reynoso were removed by the voters in 1986 for their high-handed liberalism. Those were the days.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/2/2024 @ 2:34 pmOnline sleuths rush to identify the men who attacked UCLA encampment
I am confident that UCLA will identify and expel those who attacked the encampment, just as I am convinced there will be no action against the Hamas adherents.
I am also certain that UCLA will provide all video possible to those seeking the attackers, while citing privacy concerns for the terror supporters.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/2/2024 @ 2:40 pmHeroes.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/2/2024 @ 2:43 pmIf Trump was President now he would talk about sending in the National Guard, but ultimately do nothing.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/2/2024 @ 2:45 pmKevin M (a9545f) — 5/2/2024 @ 2:28 pm
They were later than the 1950s.
JVW is right about how fellow-travelers for the Soviet Union from the 1920s-50s were treated later. Angela Davis escaped the same fate because there is no generalized appraisal of her – she sticks to sources of adulation and the people she praised are no so universally reviled.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 5/2/2024 @ 2:58 pmI think they may attempt to do so, if any were students, but will back off, possibly under threat of lawsuit, because of the problem of unequal application to both sides and they don’t want to go harsh on the original protesters. Some of them knocked a Jewish girl unconscious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecD39KFX6oU
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 5/2/2024 @ 3:04 pmbecause of the problem of unequal application to both sides
They will find a way, trust me.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/2/2024 @ 3:18 pmMost of the counter protesters were older, from the city not ULA, about 26-29 years old, but I haven’t heard anything about what organization they might have belonged to.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 5/2/2024 @ 3:27 pmAs a UCLA grad I find the events of this week dispiriting. I have no problem with the people who attacked the encampment on Tuesday night being prosecuted except for, as JVW and Kevin are undoubtedly correct in pointing out, that the lawbreakers who set up the encampment are likely to skate completely. The internet sleuths who worked to identify the counter-protestors who attacked the encampment are probably, I would guess, not trying very hard to identify whoever it was attacked and injured the Jewish girl on campus earlier on Tuesday.
If they’re not out already, there will probably soon be plenty of opinion pieces claiming the cops used excessive force to clear the encampment. The irony there is rich, as many of the protestors are the products of Marxist indoctrination about class, but don’t like to mention that rank and file cops are more likely to be working class or lower middle class while the protestors are mostly upper middle class to rich young people. A lot of the protestors exude class privilege and entitlement when dealing with cops and probably consider any infringement on that excessive.
RL formerly in Glendale (7a2d64) — 5/2/2024 @ 3:28 pmJVW, my older brother and I both went to UCLA as undergraduates, and got to see the campus unrest during the late 60s and early 70s.
What strikes me (and we have a small scale version of this on my own campus) is the hypocritical and self serving nature of these protests. The trash left behind.
I have seen it before. And history repeats itself, as a farce to borrow from the saying.
The thing that needs to be emphasized are the older organizers. They will not suffer. But nineteen year olds will. I doubt that many of them could find the Middle East on a map, let alone Gaza. But they want to feel important, and part of a movement.
I guess that depends on the movement.
No one at all wins from this, other than the outside agitators.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 5/2/2024 @ 5:08 pm@11 “If Trump was President now he would talk about sending in the National Guard, but ultimately do nothing.”
Trump sent in law enforcement in response to attacks on a federal courthouse in Portland, and Nevertrump complained about it. I don’t know what he would do, and neither do you.
What we do know is that Biden is president now and will do nothing other than saddle taxpayers with the student debt of the pro-kidnapping protesters, and Nevertrump will reward him with their votes.
lloyd (a8d46c) — 5/2/2024 @ 5:21 pmI would guess, not trying very hard to identify whoever it was attacked and injured the Jewish girl on campus earlier on Tuesday.
Which, given the sizable Jewish population of Brentwood/Westwood/Beverly Hills, probably had something to do with the violent reaction.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/2/2024 @ 5:22 pmA wise quote I have seen on XTwitter about the protests:
This is part of what Rob Henderson calls “luxury beliefs.” It’s not about the cause, but how supporting the cause makes the supporters feel.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 5/2/2024 @ 5:22 pmAs far as doxxing is concerned, doxxing someone as anti-Hamas is probably not all that terrible compared to being labeled an anti-Semite. Maybe that will change.
I wonder if this is becoming a wedge issue in the Democrat Party.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/2/2024 @ 5:24 pm#20
“they actually believe the conflict and its moral attributions can be summarized fully on a piece of poster board…”
Reminds me of the writer Fred Reed years ago describing some earnest liberals “who think that bumper stickers are reference works.”
RL formerly in Glendale (7a2d64) — 5/2/2024 @ 5:38 pmUCLA dithered while the campus burned:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/2/2024 @ 5:45 pmWise words as usual, Simon Jester, and thanks as always for the contribution. I agree with you. UCLA students are generally very good students, but I fear that a lot of them are like the silly airheads interviewed at NYU who openly acknowledged that they really didn’t know a whole lot about what was going on in Gaza, but led us all to assume that they had simply chosen the side that all of their friends and favorite social media influencers were on.
JVW (b02843) — 5/2/2024 @ 7:22 pmStern’s union put out a statement Wednesday noting that the police departments across the UC system take their orders from the chancellors of the schools.
Gene Block shouldn’t even wait until his July 31 retirement. He should resign immediately and own his disgrace in this matter. It’s the only way for him to salvage any sort of dignity here.
JVW (b02843) — 5/2/2024 @ 7:25 pm11. so Rip, do you have anyone that WOULD have done something? Of course not. The one most likely to have done something is the one you ponderously criticize. Non-existent “perfection” is the enemy of good.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (d5983f) — 5/2/2024 @ 7:38 pmTwo things can be true. These Tentifadas were outrageous. And so is Trump.
norcal (dcbafa) — 5/2/2024 @ 9:15 pmI partied at my frat’s chapter at UCLA. There are plenty of frat boys available to take down the extremists’ encampments, a la ASU.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 5/2/2024 @ 9:15 pmWhere are Jimmy Hoffa’s Teamsters when you need them?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/2/2024 @ 9:40 pmI agree, that when pro-Palestinian protesters tell you what they’re protesting for, believe them…
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 5/2/2024 @ 10:59 pmAlso, this.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 5/2/2024 @ 11:01 pmI read your words carefully. Side you don’t like budding terrorists. Side you like pro-Israel students. OK if thats the way you want it. Other side gets to do the same. Those of us who support Israel’s right exist let alone protect itself trying to explain that hamas is not the palestinian peoples friend and is in fact an evil that hopefully will be destroyed. If everyone supporting a ceasefire which now is the majority both in america and around the world are accused of being hamas potential terrorists (at least you separated the snowflakes) by the likes of alan dershowitz on fox Israel loses the long game thanks to netanyahu’s supporters. California is a democrat state as you know from the gov. thru UCLA administration to the students and voters and they all have one thing in common they don’t like (actually loathe) conservatives and you know this. Your sides short term gain will pay dearly in the long run. Two or three decades from now the left will be running the country thanks to demographics like (michigan) and conservative self destructive tendencies. see: nixon, reagan, bushes, trump and the republican party in general. If biden loses which is now a possibility left takes over democrat party and then how many of them want to be Israel’s friend.
asset (baa282) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:21 amShe’s saying the quiet part out loud. They intend to dismantle our domestic institutions. The Palestinian cause is just a warmup.
And I might be worried if “They” were not outnumbered by red-headed transexual Tibetan one-legged dwarfs.
But it’s the irrelevant fringe weirdos who get quoted by the media.
The Palestinian students are studying biomedical genetics and engineering with maybe a handful of “starry-eyed idealists” in global health. The only thing they want to dismantle is Israel.
nk (5e0d4f) — 5/3/2024 @ 5:23 amIt’s being noted elsewhere that these same colleges uprooted fraternities for much smaller infractions.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/3/2024 @ 7:51 amWell the US has taken the position that if you want to dismantle Israel, you’ll have to go through us, which narrows it down to red-headed, one-legged Tibetans of unusually short stature. Are they ill-tempered?
steveg (7be5a1) — 5/3/2024 @ 8:16 am@JVW… looks like there’s a weee bit momentum for our Sweet Aloha™ as Trump’s VP pick:
https://amgreatness.com/2024/05/03/six-reasons-why-tulsi-gabbard-is-donald-trumps-best-choice-as-a-running-mate/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=act_eng&seyid=133686
😉
whembly (86df54) — 5/3/2024 @ 10:24 amhttp://politicsthatwork.com/voting-record/Tulsi-Gabbard-412532
BuDuh (4214e4) — 5/3/2024 @ 10:44 amBased in her voting record as posted by BuhDuh, she’s a big NO.
Rip Murdock (1803bc) — 5/3/2024 @ 11:35 amThat and being a Kremlin stooge.
Rip Murdock (1803bc) — 5/3/2024 @ 11:47 amBased in her voting record as posted by BuhDuh, she’s a big NO.
As Trump’s VP? How does she detract?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/3/2024 @ 11:55 amWhen looking at Gabbard…
Who else used to be in the Democratic party, whom even donated to Democrats and routinely hobnobbed with the Democrat elites?
He’s the presumptive nominee of the GOP party.
Besides… Gabbard as VP would make her a very effective advocate for Trump, who can independently campaign and do all the media circus stuff while Trump is sitting in court.
As VP, her influence would actually be very nil…
whembly (86df54) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:02 pmTwo or three decades from now the left will be running the country thanks to demographics like (michigan) and conservative self destructive tendencies. see: nixon, reagan, bushes, trump and the republican party in general. If biden loses which is now a possibility left takes over democrat party and then how many of them want to be Israel’s friend.
asset (baa282) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:21 am
Take your ‘demographics’ and shove ’em, asset. We all know about your wet dream to put conservatives up against the wall.
BTW, the brainwashers at YOUR useless, hateful universities (yes, they’re YOUR pieces of sh!t that hate Israel) have been doing so for a long time now and Trump still managed to get elected. While I still want most of your party locked up forever on terrorism charges, your masturbating is beyond stale and tired. Go spooge on your AOC portrait some more and STFU.
qdpsteve again (711764) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:07 pmAside from her gender, what makes her qualified to be VP?
Rip Murdock (1803bc) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:08 pmAny VP nominee can do that.
Rip Murdock (1803bc) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:11 pmRip: what made Kamala Harris qualified to be VP?
qdpsteve again (711764) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:11 pmAlso, surprised no new Weekend News Thread.
qdpsteve again (711764) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:13 pmNothing, except her gender and race. I would expect better from a Republican nominee.
Rip Murdock (0501da) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:29 pmEven a dog-killing governor is more qualified than Harris.
Rip Murdock (1803bc) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:31 pmEven a dog-killing governor is more qualified than Harris.
Rip Murdock (1803bc) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:31 pm
LOL!
qdpsteve again (711764) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:48 pm@JVW… looks like there’s a weee bit momentum for our Sweet Aloha™ as Trump’s VP pick:
Heard her discuss lots of things on a podcast, and have been meaning to write a post about it.
JVW (b02843) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:48 pmThat and being a Kremlin stooge.
Here are two truly stupid positions, both of which do nothing but cheapen our current debate much to the detriment of a rational policy discussion:
1. Anybody who questions whether it is wise for the United States to become a guarantor of Ukraine’s ability to do battle with Russia is a stooge for Vladimir Putin.
2. Anybody who supports the United States sending equipment and aid to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s annexation attempt is a warmonger who is beholden to defense manufacturers.
It’s sad to see what should be a vigorous and nuanced debate devolve into those two mindless positions.
JVW (b02843) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:57 pmHere are two truly stupid positions, both of which do nothing but cheapen our current debate much to the detriment of a rational policy discussion:
1. Anybody who questions whether it is wise for the United States to become a guarantor of Ukraine’s ability to do battle with Russia is a stooge for Vladimir Putin.
2. Anybody who supports the United States sending equipment and aid to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s annexation attempt is a warmonger who is beholden to defense manufacturers.
It’s sad to see what should be a vigorous and nuanced debate devolve into those two mindless positions.
JVW (b02843) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:57 pm
*stands and applauds*
qdpsteve again (711764) — 5/3/2024 @ 1:04 pm51. I think position number 1 is correct. How is it “unwise” to support Ukraine?
You could argue it is not vital and that we’re following a policy that maximizes bloodshed, but to say it is unwise, how?
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 5/3/2024 @ 1:27 pmAnyone that argues that Ukraine has any good options, and could easily get a semi-acceptable peace, is a stooge for Putin.
It is possible to argue that the domino theory isn’t true, at least any more.
In Vietnam the domino theory may not have bee true after August 12, 1966 (start of the Cultural Revolution in China) or possibly it was only the fact that China sneakily took control of the Khmer Rouge from Hanoi – and the fact that the war had gone on so long – that allowed the war to end on April 30, 1975.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 5/3/2024 @ 1:33 pm@42 somebody is upset. I actually don’t want to. I am for capital punishment in very limited case far more limited then conservatives. I will have to admit the young left is passing me by.
asset (89cef5) — 5/3/2024 @ 2:06 pm32. asset (baa282) — 5/3/2024 @ 12:21 am
The Biden Administration seems to have given up on that, although not Israel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/02/world/middleeast/us-israel-gaza-blinken-netanyahu.html
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 5/3/2024 @ 2:38 pmEverybody supports a ceasefire, The question is the other terms of the deal.
All the more reason for Israel to finish the war with the destruction of Hamas now, and to go after and finish Iran’s nuclear program as well..
Is this the way you want Israeli policymakers to think??
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 5/3/2024 @ 2:42 pmwhembly (86df54) — 5/3/2024 @ 10:24 am
I believe the exact trademarked phrase is “My Little Aloha Sweetie”. 😛
norcal (4aa5fd) — 5/3/2024 @ 6:39 pm