Content Warning: This article contains descriptions and visual representations of police brutality, assault, and mistreatment of students.
After 31 days of the UCSC Gaza Solidarity Encampment and two days of protestors blocking the main entrance of campus, police escalation ensued on the late evening of May 30. Throughout the 16-hour confrontation period, police detained 122 students, faculty, and others. Arrested demonstrators recounted experiences of injuries, neglect, and emotional distress.
Groups of two to eight City on a Hill Press members reported throughout the night from 12 a.m. to 2 p.m. This article includes information from reporters’ eyewitness accounts and interviews with demonstrators and observers.
Many protestors City on a Hill Press spoke to were not read their Miranda Rights throughout the entirety of their arrest, detainment, and booking processes. According to Santa Cruz attorney Jay Rorty, not every person who is detained or arrested needs to be read their Miranda Rights unless the police are conducting a custodial interrogation.
The stoplights surrounding the Bay & High intersection cast an eerie glow over the UC Santa Cruz Gaza Solidarity Encampment in Lot 122. Green, yellow, red; the lights shifted as students from the encampment rushed to pack up their belongings and form makeshift barricades in preparation for police confrontation.
Police municipalities from across Northern California began staging their forces at Coolidge Dr. and High St. just before 11:50 p.m. on May 30. According to UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason, 150 officers were present. Among those were the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the Watsonville Police Department, the Santa Clara County Police Department, the San Mateo County Police Department, the Daly City Police Department, the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD), the San Francisco Police Department, and the San Jose Police Department.
UC Berkeley and UC Davis also sent the University of California Police Department (UCPD). While the UCSC Police Department led the response, the CHP was the predominant police force in the line, with the SCPD blocking roads and monitoring traffic.
City on a Hill Press witnessed police destroy property such as ripping apart signs, throwing wooden pallets, breaking tents, kicking around food that was on the street, and throwing at least two demonstrators’ helmets. Most police officers were not wearing body cams or did not have them visibly turned on, and police regularly switched shifts throughout Thursday and Friday. One police officer told a reporter that officers were allowed to turn body cams on and off at their own discretion. According to multiple demonstrators, the police also ate food and drank water they had taken from the encampment during the raid.
UCSC’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) began livestreaming on Instagram around 11 p.m. Starting and stopping throughout the night and into the day, the stream saw peak viewership of around 2,700. Students on High St. and Coolidge Dr. linked arms and stood in a line in front of the police, forming a human blockade.
By 12:32 a.m., demonstrators set up physical barricades made up of tents from the Bay & High (UCSC-Main Gate) bus stop to the Theater Barn. They made another with chained-together wooden signs, artwork, rocks, and pallets across the Coolidge St. crosswalk.
Seven minutes later, an officer announced the gathering was unlawful through speakers. He said demonstrators had five minutes to disperse. “Cops off campus,” demonstrators responded from their human blockades.
According to a demonstrator, officers from CHP, the San Mateo Police Department, and the Daly City Police Department moved into the tent barricade at 1:41 a.m., dragging tents aside to move forward.
Demonstrators brought wooden signs, pallets, chairs, and other heavy items from the crosswalk barricade on Coolidge Dr. to where the police in riot gear were stationed: between the Bay & High (UCSC-Main Gate) bus stop and the Barn Theater. The human barricade on the west side of Coolidge Dr. was stretched across both sides of the street in front of the police line. Demonstrators and police faced each other head-on.
At around 1:45 a.m., police arrested a medic from the encampment after the medic took a demonstrator out of the blockade line and administered medical attention to them on the sidewalk by the Barn Theater. During the medic’s arrest, their ankle was folded and despite requesting medical attention, the police offered none. The injury resulted in a large and dark bruise. They were the first encampment member in the cell when they were booked into the Santa Cruz Main Jail and they were held there until 9 a.m.
“I told [the police] I was a medic and that I wanted to get this person to their feet immediately, and they told me to disperse,” they said. “It was clear I was a medic, I had crosses, I had a red hoodie on; I felt like I was targeted.”
At 2:16 a.m., officers from CHP herded demonstrators and legal observers on the hill to the right of the Bay & High (UCSC-Main Gate) bus stop, threatening arrest if they did not comply. Around 3 a.m., CHP detained an encampment intermediary, handing them off to a UCPD officer from Santa Cruz. The intermediary said a UCPD officer took a selfie with them, zip-tied their hands together, and put them in a police car to be taken to the Santa Cruz Main Jail. 
“I was sitting off on the side of the hill with a phone and a flashlight, illuminating police officers and their badge numbers and names with my flashlight and recording them with my phone camera […] I didn’t believe that standing on a hill on my own campus was actually unlawful,” the encampment intermediary said. “I was repeatedly misgendered [by officers] despite me expressing that my pronouns were they/them, and I was put in a male detention cell.”
According to multiple demonstrators, police officers were taking photos of and selfies with detained demonstrators at the site of their arrests. 
At 4:09 a.m. the police pushed demonstrators into and past the Coolidge Dr. median, isolating them to the west side of the street. Police arrested another demonstrator during the move.
By 4:13 a.m. the police began kettling protesters near the Theater Barn. “Kettling” is a tactic used by law enforcement to contain protesters in one place for an extended period by surrounding them and preventing them from being able to disperse. The police are allowed to kettle protesters, but can only do so lawfully if they have exhausted all possible steps to prevent a breach of the peace.
At 4:16 a.m., police began breaking down the west Coolidge Dr. barricade, throwing the wooden signs and artwork to the side and onto the median. Around 30 bystanders stood observing at the barricade. By 4:35 a.m., police disassembled the west barricade. Demonstrators attempted to reassemble the barricade, putting rocks back into the intersection.
At 4:23 a.m., the police put up a large bright rectangular light tower on Coolidge Dr. behind the Barn, angled on demonstrators below. Three minutes later, police cars moved into the crosswalk of west High and Coolidge. By 4:50 a.m., the police had pushed demonstrators that had been in the human barricade on High St. to the west Bay St. crosswalk.
At 4:37 a.m., a demonstrator moved past the police to gather purple flowers that had been thrown to the ground, collecting them into a small bouquet. They laid the bouquet in the middle of the intersection with a sign under it reading “Mahmoud Talba. 13 years old.”
By 4:43 a.m. the riot police had entirely kettled the west Coolidge Dr. protestors on all sides, forcing them into a large circle with only a small opening in the front. 
At 4:47 a.m., another line of police assembled on the west side of Bay St. blocking protestors not inside the kettle. Five minutes later, the police extended their line to reach diagonally across the Bay & High intersection to block press trying to get closer.
“We’re not leaving!” the kettled protesters on Coolidge Dr. and the group behind the police line on Bay St. yell in a call-and-response chant.
As the sun rose over Bay St., the protestors started singing and dancing to “This Little Light of Mine,” and “Stand by Me,” interjecting with insults to the officers, such as “Fuck you, pigs!”
At 5:12 a.m., the riot police pushed further into the blockade of protestors on west Coolidge Dr., making more arrests. A minute later, Santa Clara County Sheriff transport vans arrived, parking behind the UCSC sign on the road leading to the Stone House. This would soon become the “booking area” where Sheriff’s vans and buses from Santa Clara county, as well as UCSC loop buses, would transport arrested protestors to either Westside Research Park or the Santa Cruz Main Jail.
According to the assistant vice chancellor of communications & marketing Scott Hernandez-Jason, “TAPS drivers were informed of the situation, and asked if they would be willing to drive [the loop bus]; none were directed or required to do so.”
Someone who asked to be referred to as a “peaceful demonstrator” said in the kettle an officer tried to break their fingers, choked them, shoved them, hit them with batons, and threatened to shoot them if they did not disperse. They also said the police were singling out “smaller, female-presenting people” in the kettle.
During their arrest at 5:30 a.m., they recounted being dragged outside the kettle, forcibly zip-tied, and carried by three officers by their arms and legs to the booking area. They said the zip-ties were so tight on their wrists that their arms and hands went numb “almost instantly,” and when they finally went to the emergency room after their release they were told they had “extensive nerve damage.”
“The police searched me, which was extremely invasive. They were putting hands underneath my clothing, grabbing my private parts, and it was extremely traumatizing,” the peaceful demonstrator said. “We were held [in the county bus on campus] for about two hours before we started moving, pleading, crying, asking if we could go to the bathroom, and expressing our pain to no avail […] when they started to move the bus, they blasted radio in our ears to unmeasurable levels … we yelled and begged them to turn it down, but they turned it up higher until we just gave up.”
At 5:35 a.m., a demonstrator left the barricade after being hit in the ribs with a baton by the police. They were escorted to the emergency room by another demonstrator.
At 6:02 a.m., a SlugSafe message was issued to all UCSC students and staff. “Intersection of Bay and High streets closed. Avoid the area. West entrance is open. More information to come,” the message stated.
Courtesy photo provided by @troglodyte.jpeg on Instagram.
At 6:08 a.m., campus provost executive vice chancellor (CPEVC) Lori Kletzer was seen walking her dog along High St. across from the arrest circle, wearing a hoodie and sweats. CPEVC Kletzer refused a comment request from City on a Hill Press.
Several protestors chased after her, yelling, “You have blood on your hands, you’re traumatizing people!”
At 6:16 a.m., the police moved into the circle of demonstrators again with batons raised, arresting nine people. The sound of zip ties and batons making physical contact could be heard by City on a Hill Press reporters.
“We were standing in the middle of the circle and the cops started pushing forward, causing the front row to fall back and the middle to collapse,” a demonstrator fresh out of the kettle said. “We were literally about to be trampled and suffocated by people falling on top of us.”
Around 6:50 a.m., the police told legal observers and press organizations to stay on the sidewalk near the Bay & High (UCSC – Main Gate) bus stop as the police moved into the kettle further. They pushed press and legal observers to the sidewalk again at 7:10 a.m., threatening arrest if they did not comply. One officer told the group they could not go past the sidewalk because it was “the designated staging area.” Press and legal observers were pushed and threatened with arrest again at 7:48 a.m.
At 7:06 a.m., two police officers keep one of the arrestees near the blockade and take photos of them as they are zip-tied. The crowd chants, “Hey hey, ho ho, these racist cops have got to go.” as police push in further.
At 7:19 a.m., a demonstrator observing from the sidewalk where the press was stationed walked out into the street and knelt. “Please, stop this, please leave our campus now […] Let them go!” they begged the police, sobbing.
At 7:26 a.m., the police were seen throwing tents used for the barricade to the side as a bulldozer came on site. Police used a dumptruck to load encampment materials that were left on the street.
A Santa Clara County Sheriff’s bus and two vans passed the circled demonstrators around 7:30 a.m.; inside, arrested protestors banged on the walls and chanted slogans. This invoked cheers from the remaining protestors and observers.
Around 7:50 a.m., a person ran out of the kettle to vomit in the intersection, and a multitude of other protestors filed out of the kettle and collapsed from exhaustion and dehydration on the outskirts of the blockade. Some had been in the blockade for almost eight hours.
Two minutes later the police had pushed the kettle directly into the intersection of Bay, Coolidge, and High. The police were lined to block west High St. and Coolidge Dr., but left the east side open. Other demonstrators handed out food and water to those inside the blockade and dozens of protestors that had previously left the barricade rejoined, linking arms with one another. Over 100 cops circled the barricade. 
Two minutes later the police had pushed the kettle directly into the intersection of Bay, Coolidge, and High. The police were lined to block west High St. and Coolidge Dr., but left the east side open. Other demonstrators handed out food and water to those inside the blockade and dozens of protestors that had previously left the barricade rejoined, linking arms with one another. Over 100 cops circled the barricade.
At 8:14 a.m., a group of thirteen police officers walked through their formation and pulled a protester from the blockade group, held them against the ground, and zip-tied them. Ten minutes later, the police arrested two more people, one of whom was identified by City on a Hill Press as a UCSC faculty member.
At 8:25 a.m., an encampment member who asked to be referred to as “Groovy” was arrested. They were taken to a campus loop bus and held there until around 12 p.m. and Groovy said many of them had to urinate on the floor of the bus. They said once they left campus they were taken through the campus bus route and eventually to Westside Research Park. They were released at 2 p.m. on Friday.
“I told [the officers] multiple times I had had a tampon in me for over fourteen hours, I’m risking toxic shock syndrome, I’m risking septic shock […] they were just like, that’s too bad,” Groovy said. “Seeing the amount of physical and mental strain that was necessary to be against these people who were in riot gear for a peaceful protest, it was an unhinged amount of power being used against us.”
At 8:34 a.m., the police arrested more demonstrators, one of whom had a spit hood put over their head. Police left the demonstrator with the hood over their head and their hands zip tied behind their back, holding them at the High & Bay (Main Entrance) bus bench. Although spit hoods are legal in the state of California, they are extremely controversial. At 9:13 a.m., the demonstrator fell to the ground, and police took the hood off and gave them medical attention.
According to multiple demonstrators and Thomas Serres, a Legal Observer and a UCSC politics assistant professor, there were only one to two medics from law enforcement on the scene. City on a Hill Press reporters did not observe an ambulance on the scene.
“I saw one instance of the medic assisting students, but the vast majority of those who were clearly in need did not receive any kind of medical attention,” Serres said. “What I saw on the night of Thursday and Friday was a massive, often very brutal, response to an attempt to simply express dissent peacefully.”
By 8:50 a.m., all protestors had been completely pushed to the west side of Bay St. past the crosswalk.
At 9:35 a.m., Chancellor Larive released a statement to UCSC faculty and students titled “Update on this morning’s actions at the main entrance,” while police in riot gear were still lined up in front of protestors.
For six hours, protestors and police faced each other on the west side of Bay. By 3 p.m., the cops had allegedly left, and protestors resumed blocking the intersection. According to a SlugSafe message, by 7:52 a.m. June 1 the main entrance was no longer blocked.
According to Scott Hernandez-Jason, 122 people were arrested for 409 PC charges (Failure to Disperse). Of those 122, one person had an additional charge of 69 PC (Threat of Violence Towards a Peace Officer), one person had an additional charge of 243(b) PC (Battery on a Peace Officer), and nine people had an additional charge of 148 PC (Resisting Arrest). Of the 122 people arrested, 110 were students, eight were unaffiliated with UCSC, three were faculty members, and one was a staff member.
In regards to the reports of violence being used against protestors by police officers, Hernandez-Jason wrote “We have high confidence in the professionalism of our law enforcement officers, and we take any allegations of misconduct seriously and will review them. Those reports can be submitted to the Police Accountability Board,” in an email to City on a Hill Press.
Students who were charged received citations banning them from the UCSC campus for 7-14 days. This includes those who live on-campus, rely on their meal plan for food, and use the Student Health Center. Through UCSHIP, the Health Center may be a student’s only form of receiving medical assistance; if they cannot come to campus, students can have someone pick up prescriptions on their behalf and access Telehealth for online appointments.
Editor’s Note: City on a Hill Press reached out to the Santa Cruz Police Department for comment and did not receive a response before publication.
