As pro-Palestinian protesters seized and barricaded the Cal State Los Angeles student services building Wednesday night, university police issued a mutual aid call that brought in officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Highway Patrol. from California to campus.
But although officers were prepared to enter the building and expel protesters, senior university officials never gave them approval to enter, according to two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the incident.
Around 9 p.m., The Times observed police stopping in front of the university's public safety station, a short distance from the student services building.
The LAPD and CHP officers remained there before leaving, said the two law enforcement sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. At some point during the night, protesters scrawled pro-Palestinian slogans on all the windows. Video from ABC7 showed a broken glass door, ransacked cubicles and people carrying photocopiers out of the building.
It is still unclear exactly why the police did not take action.
On Friday, university spokesman Erik Frost Hollins said law enforcement sources were misinformed about the chain of events, but did not elaborate further to avoid revealing tactical information.
University officials had ordered staff members who were in the eight-story building to shelter in place after between 50 and 100 protesters entered around 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to Frost Hollins.
About 60 employees remained inside for about two hours before security officers established a safe exit route. Many left, but about a dozen, including Cal State LA President Berenecea Johnson Eanes, whose office is in the building, stayed voluntarily.
Pro-Palestinian student groups posted on social media around 5 p.m. that Eanes said he would negotiate with them. Later, they posted claiming she didn't comply.
Most of the protesters left voluntarily at 1 a.m. Thursday, university officials said. University police who entered that morning found only a handful of people still inside, police sources said.
In a statement issued Thursday, Eanes said university officials had been “in ongoing formal and informal communication” with members of a pro-Palestinian camp that had been on campus for more than a month.
“As long as the Camp remained peaceful, I was committed to keeping the university talking,” she wrote.
He said damage to the building would impact student services, including “admissions, registration, accessible technology, basic needs, new student and family engagement, Dreamer resources, and educational opportunity programs.”
Those involved in the destruction would be “held accountable,” he wrote, adding: “The Camp has crossed a line. Those who are in the Camp must leave.”
Pro-Palestinian groups said in a news release Thursday that Eanes “has refused to continue negotiations or make significant progress toward meeting the demands of the student body. Delaying negotiations beyond the end of the spring semester on a commuter campus shows clear bad faith and an attempt to wait for students instead of actively working to reach an agreement.”
The groups are calling, among other things, for the university to divest from defense companies, remove law enforcement from campus and make a statement supporting an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
They stressed that university administrators were free to leave the building after Wednesday night's takeover “whenever they wish with companions, which has been repeatedly communicated both directly and on Instagram.”
On Friday, on a largely deserted campus, the student services building was cordoned off, with security guards loitering in front.
The camp was the main center of activity, with a solidly constructed perimeter of construction boxes and nets, as well as pro-Palestinian signs declaring the area a “liberated zone” and calling for “throwing license plates, not bombs.”
A woman, who said she was a UCLA student and did not want to give her name, was sitting in a welcome tent outside the camp. After Eanes' statement last night that protesters had “crossed a line,” she said she didn't know what was next for the group.
“We're ready for anything,” he said.
He said he felt Eanes had confused those who committed the vandalism at the student center with protesters at the encampment. He said they had no plans to disperse, despite the president's warning.
“We will stay here until the president meets our demands,” he said, adding that Eanes had acted too slowly in negotiating with the group.
