It was a disturbing image: University police roughly pressed three UCLA students down on the floor and fit them with handcuffs.
All the students were charged with failing to disperse and obstructing an officer at the UC Board of Regents meeting on Thursday. Two face additional charges.
Some details of what happened are fuzzy, lost behind the line of police who were blocking off the arrests as they took place.
But one thing is clear. Officers used excessive force to detain protesters, who were in the process of following police’s request to exit the building.
As protesters filed out of the regents meeting, multiple observers saw Andrew Newton, a fourth-year international development studies student at UCLA, yelling at police but making no physical disturbances. Newton was arrested and charged with battery on an officer.
Cheryl Deutsch, a graduate student in urban planning and president of United Auto Workers Local 2865, said she was arrested after trying to exit and finding her way blocked. It appeared that she was arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The actions of university police are deeply disheartening and call to mind two incidents from last fall. Then, the university was sharply criticized when police used pepper spray on students at UC Davis and batons on protesters at UC Berkeley.
These events send the message that students calling for change will be answered with violence.
Protesters disrupted the regents meeting last week to hold a “spring break” party, stripping to bathing suits and dancing around.
Despite the distractions, protesters made valid points. The regents chose to hold their March meeting when all undergraduate UC campuses were on spring break ““ a time when it was less likely that students would make the trip to UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus for the board’s meeting.
We strongly support the university’s efforts to take a magnifying glass to its protest policies. UC police released a report on the use of batons at UC Berkeley, a report on the pepper spraying at UC Davis is pending release, and a systemwide review will be out within two weeks.
We ask that the university carefully consider its policies about the use of force against protesters, and take student input into account in the process.
There should be clear guidelines about what level of force is acceptable to use against protesters, rather than relying on officers’ judgments at the scene.
As students come together and speak out against the direction the UC is moving in, it is important that the University respond with more than violence. UC leaders should extend a hand and begin a conversation.
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the editorial board.