Pomona College has Riot Police Arrest Student Protesters, Including Youngest

This weekend, our child, affectionately known to the internet world as Youngest, joined a long line of ancestors and activists as she engaged in an act of civil disobedience at Pomona College. See the fuller timeline below.*

Yes, we were worried during the action, but make no mistake, we are in full support of her choice to risk her body in order to keep pressure on institutions that continue to support the acts of the state of Israel in Gaza and the West Bank. We have had long talks about how to leverage the privileges of wealth, status, and familial support so do not cast this act as one of youth. She was thoughtful, prepared, and ready.

We are dumbfounded by the disproportionate police action that was called upon to handle these college students. While the narrative is that the students put the community in danger, we can all see who escalated and militarized the situation. For God’s sake, they arrived in riot gear. The administration was clearly over their skis, operated out of a lack of preparedness, and was out-organized by the students.

Fantastic work by the student organizers: front line and behind the scenes.

As of this posting, we still do not know what legal or educational ramifications await her, but activism does not come without risk and I am sure she’ll respond thoughtfully when the time comes.

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*Below is the reposted story via @claremont.undercurrents and @pomonadivestapartheid. Follow both on IG for the most current updates.

Pomona College called in more than 30 police officers, over a dozen in riot gear armed with shields and high-caliber crowd control weapons, to arrest 19 students who were participating in a peaceful sit-in to demand divestment on Friday, just two hours after it began. The police arrested one additional student who was standing outside of the building in support. Pomona immediately placed all arrested Pomona students on “interim suspension,” depriving them of housing and access to campus.

The 19 students entered Pomona President Gabi Starr’s office around 4 p.m. Campus Safety closed the door to the office, physically pushing a student reporter wearing a press vest out. Around 40 students subsequently entered the building, sitting and chanting in the lobby outside.

Several Claremont Police Department cars arrived around 5 p.m. By 6 p.m. there were 25 police vehicles present, from Claremont, Pomona, La Verne, Covina and Azusa police departments.

Hundreds of students, accompanied by professors and other community members, rallied outside of the building as police took ziptied students out and transported them to the Claremont police station.