Two students and two faculty members at UCLA Tuesday sued the UC regents and university officials, alleging their rights to free speech and expression were violated when pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at an encampment on campus last spring.
According to the Los Angeles Superior Court suit, the UCLA Police Department and other agencies, acting at the direction of UCLA and UC leadership, destroyed the encampment on May 2, resulting in the arrest of more than 200 students, staff members and supporters.
“Students decrying the genocide of Palestinians and the university’s complicity were brutally shut down by the same administrators who profess to support free expression and thinking,” Graeme Blair, a plaintiff in the case and an associate professor of political science, said in a statement. “As an educator, I am ashamed that the university failed our students.”…