When pro-Palestinian protesters set up camp last week on the Pomona College stage where graduation was to be held, school leaders decided to move Sunday's graduation to Los Angeles.
The graduation took place at the Shrine Auditorium and began at 6 p.m. But the protesters also moved. A group of more than 100 people gathered outside the auditorium on Sunday afternoon and clashed with authorities. Los Angeles police said protesters charged them, and one protester said officers hit people in the stomach with batons.
The university had said there would be additional security measures at the event and dozens of Los Angeles Police Department officers were present. Officers lined up outside the venue as protesters held signs and shouted through megaphones.
Several Pomona College graduates, dressed in full regalia, led the crowd in chanting, “Free Palestine.”
At times, protesters pushed and shoved police as officers attempted to secure the area around the auditorium. Officials told KABC-7 that some protesters charged at officers and one was arrested after trying to hit an officer.
Later, around 6:30 p.m., protesters moved away from the Shrine Auditorium and gathered in a courtyard where a Pomona College student, dressed in his graduation gown, read a statement calling for an end to the war and for the Universities will disassociate themselves from their financial ties. with Israel.
Tharwa Khalid, a member of a local chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement, said protesters started on West 32nd Street and split into two groups, one on 32nd Street and another near Jefferson Boulevard.
The dynamic with the police increased from “zero to 100 without warning,” he said.
The officers shoved Khalid and several other people, threw some people to the ground and beat them with batons, including hitting several protesters in the stomach, Khalid said.
“Many of my friends are bruised right now and are not feeling well physically,” Khalid said.
When officers pushed a Muslim protester to the ground, they took off her headscarf, Khalid said.
Khalid said he saw a legal observer from the National Lawyers Guild, who was wearing a neon green hat so he could be easily seen observing police activity, pushed to the ground by an officer.
“It just shows that they are trying to intimidate students and punish them for exercising their First Amendment rights,” Khalid said.
Among Sunday's protesters outside the Shrine Auditorium were those in their Pomona College graduation caps and gowns.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
By nearly 7 p.m., most of the pro-Palestinian protesters had dispersed from the campus courtyard and police had cordoned off an area surrounding the Shrine Auditorium.
Some relatives of the graduates arrived late to the ceremony with flowers in hand, but were briefly pulled away from the police line. However, an officer intervened and allowed them to pass so they could attend the graduation.
Los Angeles Police Officer Tony Im, a public information officer, said he could not provide a statement or response Sunday night about what protesters alleged happened because he had not been informed.
Pomona College's decision to postpone its commencement came after USC's decision to cancel its traditional graduation ceremony on the main campus and hold an alternative celebration at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Thursday's event featured fireworks and a drone show.
As at USC, pro-Palestinian protests have rocked the Pomona campus, with student activists demanding that the university publicly call for a ceasefire and divest university endowment funds from corporations linked to Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the occupation of the West Bank. In April, police in riot gear arrested 19 protesters who had occupied the university president's office.
Times staff writer Jenny Gold contributed to this report.
