A California sheriff is criticizing what he called a “meritless” case brought by UCLA students and community members who say that police who responded to a pro-Palestinian camp at UCLA last year “attacked” students without a reason.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-Los Angeles filed the case, which says that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) “worked together to attack and clear the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment.” At that time, UCLA said the camp was illegal and canceled lessons.
The LAPD and CHP told Fox News Digital that they don’t talk about cases that are still being argued. He told Fox News Digital that he thinks the plaintiffs are “100% completely in the wrong.” Sheriff Chad Bianco is in charge of nearby Riverside County and is not involved in the case.
“At that time, there were numerous protests across not only our state but other states that were happening, and my frustration always is that school administration allows it and law enforcement allows it,” said Bianco. “Then it turns into a show on the news or social media when things get out of hand.” Sadly, this case probably has no grounds and is only being filed for attention. This is just completely silly. It’s a terrible wrong to our law system.”
Further, Bianco said that he thinks there are good-hearted people who allow protests and free speech at schools where these events happen, but they are afraid of being called “genocide supporters” or “bad people” by people who “take advantage of the situation.”
“Most of those marchers are getting paid. About half of the kids there think they’re doing something good, but most of them are just going along with the program, and Bianco said, “The good people are taken advantage of.” “The good students who don’t want it there, don’t want the attention, don’t want that on their campus are being completely ignored for a very, very, very small group.” The illegal acts of that very, very small group are causing all kinds of problems in our school systems.
The students set up the camp on April 25 and kept it up until early May 2, when cops started taking it down.
“Officers tore down the encampment walls and attacked the students and community members who were gathered inside,” says the lawsuit, which was filed on May 1, exactly one year after the UCLA encampment became closed.
The lawsuit says that on “April 30, pro-Israel [protesters] violently attacked the encampment and its participants with chemical irritants, fireworks, metal rods, wooden boards, and other weapons and attempted to tear down the barricades and breach the encampment, an assault that lasted for five hours before any sort of intervention by police.”
In a statement on May 5, plaintiff Abdullah Puckett said that police officers were “militarized.”
“The horrific scene of how militarized police attacked unarmed peaceful protesters—the same night I was shot by police, unprovoked, with my hands up—reflects the [violence] we have all seen [from] the IDF [as they] bomb, and commit mass murder against, unarmed Palestinian women and children,” said Puckett. “This alone is enough of an argument that all links supporting Israeli militarism should be cut—especially links between the IDF and U.S. law enforcement and military.”
He also said that what the police did in May 2024 is “a clear sign that if we don’t stand up to the oppression that other people, like Palestinians, face abroad, those methods will be used against us here in America.”