On Wednesday, April 30, 2025, an outdoor movie screening of the film “The Encampments” on the UCLA campus was violently suppressed by roughly thirty police officers carrying clubs and projectile weapons, with some on motorcycles. This was in addition to roughly twenty security personnel. 

Currently in theatrical release, “The Encampments” is a documentary about the Palestine solidarity encampments in the United States in the spring of 2024, and includes footage and interviews from UCLA. April 30, 2025 was the first anniversary of the violent attacks on the UCLA encampment by outside agitators in which law enforcement did nothing for nearly five hours. UCLA administration broke down the encampment the next day by sending hundreds of police in riot gear, with projectile weapons, pepper spray, and flashbang grenades, resulting in hundreds of arrests.

This statement is our account of what happened at the screening on April 30, 2025. We are UCLA faculty who were present in person during these events and we report what we directly observed. We are releasing this statement to help provide a fuller accounting and also point out the factual errors and misleading and unsubstantiated claims in UCLA Newsroom’s statement about the events.

Our first-hand observation of the events of that night was that UCLA administration sent in roughly thirty armed police in riot gear to raid a film screening. We are not able to identify any specific policies that were violated when police suppressed the screening at Bruin Plaza, and in its official statement, UCLA did not specifically state which policies were violated. At the same time, even if UCLA policies on “time, place, and manner” of public activities had been violated, sending in thirty riot police in addition to those already on patrol is an indefensible and grave overreaction that jeopardizes the safety of students, staff, faculty, and community members. It is disheartening to realize that UCLA administration has turned our campus into a place where trying to show a film is met with a brutal police crackdown.

To summarize, the film screening was scheduled for 7 pm at Royce Quad, but because campus authorities had blockaded the area starting at 3 pm, students instead set up the screening at Bruin Plaza, a “designated public forum” for members of the public to gather and hold events without prior scheduling. Roughly thirty police in riot gear carrying batons and “less lethal” projectile weapons raided the screening. Students then moved to De Neve Plaza, where police in riot gear violently detained and arrested a student and an alum and recklessly drove two motorcycles into a crowd of fleeing students, in a pedestrian area where motor vehicles are not allowed and are hence completely unexpected. Afterward, police continued to intimidate faculty, staff, and students and impede their access to campus buildings. 

What we saw

The film screening had been advertised for 7 pm at Royce Quad. Starting on Friday, April 25, police officers and security personnel had a large presence on Royce Quad, with twenty or more police officers and security personnel on foot and on bicycles around the perimeter of Royce Quad and one or more police squad cars parked in the center. When asked, police officers said that they were engaging in a “high visibility patrol” because of the anniversary of last year’s encampment. In other words, the large police presence was not there because of any specific or well-defined threat to anyone’s personal safety or property.

At 2:33 pm on Wednesday, April 30, UCLA police tweeted: “Please be advised that Royce Quad will be closed today after 3 pm. It will reopen tomorrow. There is no current danger to the campus community.” Starting at 2:43 pm, faculty colleagues reported that police had blocked off all of Royce Quad with metal barricades, and had closed entrances to surrounding buildings, including Royce Hall, Haines Hall, Kaplan Hall, and Powell Library, without giving prior notice. Security personnel prevented faculty and students from getting to the library, classes, and offices through entrances around Royce Quad, necessitating long detours around all affected buildings.

One person was arrested by police around 2:30 pm. One of us has seen a video that shows a security guard aggressively approaching this person, pushing a phone in their face. The person pushes the security guard’s phone away. We have heard reports that the security guard then called UCLA police officers over and demanded that they arrest this person for “assault.” One of us has seen another video in which several UCLA police officers surround this person, knocking them down and pushing them into shrubbery before leading them away. One of us accompanied the group of students waiting at the UCLA Police office on Westwood Boulevard for this person to be released. They were cited and released several hours later.

The following pictures were shared by faculty colleagues at around 5pm. 

At around 7 pm, increasing numbers of police officers and security personnel gathered near the top of the Kuruvungna Steps, looking west down the steps at students who were gathering at the base of the steps. Students who were trying to go to class from the top of the Kuruvungna Steps were told by security personnel to find another way to get to class. Police were discussing possible methods for using police lines to disperse the students. It was obvious that the screening could not take place at Royce Quad as originally announced. Students continued to gather at the base at the steps.

A few speakers addressed the crowd while some were negotiating with UCLA police officers and security personnel to screen the film at the base of Kuruvungna steps. A speaker finally told the gathered students that they were prevented from setting up for the screening at that location. 

Around 7:45 pm, the students started walking toward Bruin Plaza, a “designated public forum” and “Area for Public Expression” that, according to UCLA policy, “may be used regardless of affiliation with UCLA and without prior scheduling on a first-come basis provided that there are no scheduled Organized or Major Events.” Students and members of the public regularly gather in Bruin Plaza. At around 8:05 pm, the screening started, next to the Bruin bear statue and across from the Wooden Center. The students were using a projector and computer on a small table and projecting the movie on a white sheet duct-taped to two aluminum painter’s poles held in place by two standing students. Roughly 200 people were sitting on the ground and watching the screening. 

Meanwhile, roughly fifty police and security personnel assembled behind the students, in Bruin Plaza near the northeast entrance, east of the Ashe Center. 

Some police were holding projectile weapons. The weapon in the left picture below is a pepper ball launcher very similar to this. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, on June 10, 2024, UCLA Police fired pepper balls at the feet of students peacefully protesting. Police also fired them toward the feet of a faculty member on June 10, 2024. The weapon in the right picture below is a 40 mm launcher that fires “standard 40mm less lethal ammunition” very similar to this. In September 2024, UCLA Police reported using 108 “Def-Tec eXact iMpact 40 mm munitions for annual training” and requested to “purchase (4) FN Herstal 303 launchers, (4) Pepper Ball VK-SBL, (3,000) FTC Pava Capsaicin Rounds, (100) Rounds of Def-Tec 40mm munitions (Model #6320) and (300) rounds of Def-Tec 40 mm munitions (Model #6325).” As reported by the Los Angeles Times, UCLA Police shot a UCLA student in the chest on June 10, 2024 with a projectile weapon and this student was hospitalized for two days because of a contusion to the heart and a bruised lung. On May 1, 2024, law enforcement officers fired 40 mm munitions which “can kill someone” at students in UCLA’s Palestine solidarity encampment, indiscriminately into the crowd and at people’s heads, violating California state law on kinetic energy projectiles.

At 8:10 pm, police and security personnel attempted to seize the screen. Students stood up and started chanting “Cops off campus!” and other slogans. The police retreated. The screening restarted at 8:12 pm. 

At 8:41 pm, roughly thirty police in riot gear with clubs and the weapons mentioned above approached students who were watching the movie. 

Police tried to push students to the west and also insert themselves between the students, thus separating the students into two separate groups.

The students moved westward on Bruin Walk, and crossed the street (Charles Young Drive North) into De Neve Plaza, in the middle of several undergraduate dorms, around 8:55 pm. 

The screening resumed, but at 9:05 pm the police suppressed it again. Teams of police in riot gear ran into De Neve Plaza in formation from the east entrance while officers on police motorcycles rushed in, at substantial speed into the dispersing crowd, from the west entrance. Two officers on motorcycles are shown in this video, but a Daily Bruin article reported that there were three officers on motorcycles. 

Students ran in all directions, and some shouted that the police were trying to “kettle” them (confine them to an area and converge on them while allowing no escape) because there were only two entrances into the plaza. A video was released here. 

The motorcycles were particularly dangerous because they were being driven, at substantial speed, in a pedestrian-only area where motor vehicles are not allowed and hence where no one would expect an oncoming motor vehicle. Especially because it was dark, someone could have easily been injured by an oncoming motorcycle. The motorcycles drove towards the dispersing students while they were still fleeing in all directions, up steps toward the Dogwood and Cedar residence halls and also to the west entrance to the plaza. The possibility of a collision or a student tripping and falling in front of an oncoming motorcycle was real and substantial. There was absolutely no operational need to bring motorcycles into De Neve Plaza. No student was fleeing in any other way than on foot. Until the police rushed in, there was no threat to public safety. The police officers on the motorcycles revved their engines as they approached the dispersing crowd, which had no operational rationale and was simply an attempt to intimidate. This noise reverberated in the plaza and was much louder and much more disruptive than the audio from the movie screening or student chanting.

In the following video and pictures from De Neve Plaza, a person is first trying to pack up audio and video cables from the ground. The small folding table is where the projector and computer had been set up for the screening. The person is grabbed and pushed away by a police officer. 

These two pictures show DeNeve Plaza shortly after police ran in. 

During this time, police seized the white sheet and aluminum poles that had been serving as a screen and also took the table and projector and computer that students had been using to project the movie. Students shouted “Why?” and “For what reason?” and started chanting “Let them go!” because the police had arrested people. All of this happened very quickly and was disorienting and frightening. It was also astonishing that the police did all of this right in the middle of where hundreds of students live, where they should reasonably expect safety.

The following picture shows a person apparently having been taken into custody by a police officer walking behind. Behind them another police officer holds the white fabric and aluminum poles that the students had been using as a screen for the movie screening. The next picture shows another person taken into custody.

The students then exited DeNeve Plaza going west and then walked south on Gayley Avenue, past the UCLA Medical Center, then walked east on LeConte Avenue, and then went northward on Westwood Boulevard.

The students had intended to go to the UCLA Police Department offices on 601 Westwood Boulevard, just north of Charles Young Drive, to support the two people arrested by making sure that when they are released, they have friends who could receive them and take them home. However, by the time they arrived, police officers had formed a line across Westwood Boulevard at Charles Young Drive in order to block pedestrians and cars from crossing north across their line, impeding access to parking structures and campus buildings. The students were thus blocked from gathering in front of the UCLA Police office. 

Since they could not cross the police line, students gathered in front of UCLA Medical Center, slightly south of the UCLA Police offices, at around 9:30 pm. 

At around 10 pm, a group of faculty walked north, some to reach their cars parked in north campus parking structures and some to reach the UCLA police offices to meet colleagues already there to support the students (they had arrived before the police line had been established). Police did not allow faculty to go northward on Westwood Boulevard. Police were moving their line southward and told pedestrians in their way to move southward. 

Security personnel blocked the entrance to the UCLA Medical Center.

When we tried to walk north, police stopped us and told us to turn around.

At 10:54 pm, students were gathered on the northwest corner of Le Conte Avenue and Westwood Boulevard, likely because the police line had moved them southward. By 10:57 pm, the police disbanded and left, leaving Westwood Boulevard freely passable. Several security personnel remained, many on their bikes, in front of and around the UCLA Police building. Eventually, most of them also left. 

At around 11:02 pm, the students who had been waiting at the corner of LeConte and Westwood walked north to the UCLA police office to wait at the front entrance. We were told that one person had been sent to the Emergency Room to be checked out for possible injuries. Two faculty colleagues checked on the person in the ER. That person was eventually released from the ER and allowed to leave. As the hours progressed, the crowd gradually diminished. By around 2 am on Thursday, May 1, the four of us had left but other faculty remained to help coordinate jail support for the people arrested. Colleagues told us that shortly before 7 am, the second arrested person was released and was driven home.

UCLA’s statement contains factual errors and misleading and unsubstantiated claims

Later on May 1, 2025, UCLA Newsroom released an unsigned statement on the events of the previous evening which contains factual errors and misleading and unsubstantiated claims. 

The UCLA Newsroom statement states that “Upon learning that SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine] was promoting an unauthorized screening on April 30, 2025, UCLA Office of Student Conduct communicated to the suspended organization that moving forward with the unauthorized event would violate campus policy and the terms of the suspension. Prioritizing the safety of students, faculty and staff, UCLA’s Office of Campus and Community Safety (OCCS) increased security presence and at 3 p.m. closed Royce Quad on the day of the planned unpermitted screening.” By saying that the OCCS was “prioritizing the safety of students, faculty and staff,” this statement suggests that the film screening was somehow a threat to campus safety. However, no one has claimed that the film screening was a threat to anyone’s safety or was somehow a criminal activity. All agree that the event was merely a film screening. “Unauthorized” simply means that the event was not officially registered with the UCLA Events Office. Many gatherings on campus, including group graduation photo shoots on Royce Quad and classes which are occasionally held on campus lawns, are not authorized through the UCLA Events Office but are not met with batons, projectile weapons, police motorcycles, and arrests.

In addition, events in Bruin Plaza do not have to be registered with the UCLA Events Office. UCLA Interim Policy 852: Public Expression Activities states that “Bruin Plaza between Pauley Pavilion and Meyerhoff Park” is one of the “designated Areas for Public Expression on UCLA Property that may be used regardless of affiliation with UCLA and without prior scheduling on a first-come basis provided that there are no scheduled Organized or Major Events.” Specifically concerning Bruin Plaza, this policy states that “Public Expression Activities that have not been pre-approved by SOLE or the UCLA Events Office may be relocated or denied access depending on the availability of other Public Expression Areas or impact to any University operation including scheduled events.” When we first entered Bruin Plaza around 7:50 pm, a Denim Day event for sexual violence awareness on McClure Stage in Bruin Plaza appeared to be concluding. The organizers of the Denim Day event cleaned up and left before the film screening started. We did not observe other scheduled events occurring in Bruin Plaza and did not observe any university operations affected by the screening. Thus while the screening was taking place in Bruin Plaza, the question of whether the screening was previously authorized, or whether the people attending were affiliated or not with UCLA, was not relevant. As far as we can tell, either UCLA administrators or UCLA Police took it upon themselves to decide what was campus policy, and enforced this arbitrary decision. It was not a decision based on a pre-existing rule or policy. At one point, a UCLA Police officer told a student, “The movie that’s showing up has to be off” and “You can’t show the movie here. It’s not allowed.” In other words, UCLA Police specifically disallowed the showing of the movie, not the gathering itself. UCLA policy on public expression and use of UCLA property does not state anything about showing movies.

The UCLA Newsroom statement states that “when individuals set up a projection screen and audio equipment and began to project a film going against campus directives, within approximately six minutes, the UCLA Police Department (UCPD) seized the unauthorized sound and video equipment in accordance with our TPM policies to maintain safety and enforce campus regulations.” This statement is not true. UCLA Police did try to seize the screen in Bruin Plaza a few minutes after the screening started, but did not succeed. The screening continued for roughly thirty minutes in Bruin Plaza before police entered to disrupt the screening. The police did not seize the sound and video equipment in Bruin Plaza. Instead, they seized the equipment, including the cloth screen, only after the group had moved to DeNeve Plaza and continued the screening there. That the UCLA Newsroom statement does not correctly state this simple fact places the credibility of its entire statement into question.

The phrase “​​to project a film going against campus directives” suggests either that projecting a film or that projecting this particular film “The Encampments” goes against campus policy. Neither is true. Again, there is no policy or rule prohibiting the projection of a film in Bruin Plaza. Likewise, this statement is also misleading in that campus policy on the time, place, and manner (TPM) of public expression activities on campus nowhere states that police seizure of audiovisual equipment or equipment of any kind is allowable and nowhere specifies conditions under which police seizure of any kind can take place. Thus it is not possible to seize audiovisual equipment “in accordance” with campus policy. Similarly, seizing the audiovisual equipment “to maintain safety” does not make sense because people were watching the movie calmly, with most viewers sitting down. Therefore this seems to be a statement about the content of the movie. For example, if a group showed “Paddington in Peru” in Bruin Plaza, it would be laughable to say that the sound and video equipment of the people showing the movie had to be seized “to maintain safety.” As mentioned above, events and gatherings can be held in Bruin Plaza without scheduling, so the fact that students were merely gathered together did not violate campus policy. If indeed the issue is the content of the film, as it seems to be, it is in violation of campus policy which claims to be neutral with respect to content (“Irrespective of content or viewpoints, these guidelines align with our First Amendment obligations, ensuring consistency in their application”). Finally, the phrase “campus directives” is also misleading because campus policy is ostensibly the result of a collective process and is not a directive or command, at least in democratic societies. It is not clear what a “campus directive” even means. 

The UCLA Newsroom statement does not state specifically which aspect of campus time, place, and manner policy was allegedly violated, other than the assertion that the event was unauthorized. We cannot identify a single policy that was violated. For example, UCLA Interim Policy 850: General Use of UCLA Property states that “all posters, signs, banners, flags, and other similar displays must be hand carried and not in any way affixed, fastened, or attached to the premises; they may not be self-supporting and placed for display; nor leaned against any wall, partition, or other UCLA Property.” The poles used for the cloth projection screen were hand-held and hand-carried, not self-supporting, and did not lean against any UCLA property. To take another example, UCLA Interim Policy 852: Public Expression Activities states that “When there is an Organized/Major Event in Bruin Plaza sound levels must be below 85 decibels and amplified sound not associated with the scheduled event is not permitted during the time of the event.” There was no organized or major event occurring in Bruin Plaza at the time of the screening, so amplified sound was permissible without prior authorization, according to UCLA policy.

The UCLA Newsroom statement states that “these individuals continued to move to different areas on campus. This number swiftly dwindled to about 65 people – many of whom were not affiliated with UCLA.” We are not aware of any evidence that supports the claim that many of the participants were not affiliated with UCLA. Police did not check the identification cards of participants. On the contrary, we recognized many of the participants because they were students in our classes. If UCLA Police has this evidence, they should be able to share it. In the evening, the two people arrested by police were a current student and a UCLA alum. At the same time, we must remember that UCLA is a public university and that community members without official UCLA affiliation are allowed on campus grounds.

Similarly, the UCLA Newsroom statement states that “individuals chose to come to our campus to commit an act of violence.” There is no evidence that anyone came to the UCLA campus to commit an act of violence. If there is, then UCLA should present this evidence. The only people carrying weapons were law enforcement officers.

The UCLA Newsroom statement states that “[a] student and a police officer were physically assaulted last night. The student also had his personal belongings stolen from him. UCPD arrested three individuals and issued stay-away orders.” This statement is misleading at best. As far as we can tell, the claim that a student physically assaulted a police officer was based on an incident that happened during the afternoon of April 30, not at night. As discussed above, the supposed “physical assault” was simply someone pushing away a phone shoved into their face. On the night of April 30, two people were arrested, not three. 

The UCLA Newsroom statement states that “Our greatest responsibility as leaders of this university is to keep our students safe. That is our north star. Our community includes 46,000 students, and we cannot allow a very small number of individuals to disrupt the rights and learning experiences of our students.” We cannot fathom how a group of students quietly watching a documentary film “disrupts the rights and learning experiences of our students.” As mentioned before, UCLA Police took actions, in particular driving motorcycles in the dark through a pedestrian plaza where motor vehicles are prohibited, that had no operational purpose and that could easily have resulted in a major, even fatal, accident. This occurred while students were confused and fleeing and was an attempt to intimidate and strike fear. This action did not keep students safe, but quite the opposite. Similarly, police carrying batons and projectile weapons running into a crowd of students trying to watch a movie who were not armed, belligerent, or engaged in any kind of violent activity, does not keep students safe. Finally, the film screening did not disrupt anyone’s rights or learning experiences. If anything, the screening itself was a learning experience, one that UCLA Police interrupted and punished. The only people who blocked pedestrian pathways and forced students to take alternative routes to their classroom were UCLA Police and their law enforcement partners. 

We are deeply disappointed by both UCLA administrators’ decision to send in police that night as well as the misleading and false UCLA Newsroom statement they released to attempt to justify their unwarranted and excessive use of police. We urge them to be accountable to the truth and to commit to truly make our campus safe for learning. This can only happen when police are not given orders to violently suppress our students.