The University of California, Los Angeles temporarily reassigned its campus police chief, John Thomas, this week after he allegedly canceled requests from university leadership to bring in outside police forces in the days leading up to a violent clash between anti-Israel protesters and counter-demonstrators late last month.
On April 30, pro-Israel counter-protesters tried to tear down the barricades surrounding the UCLA encampment and started attacking anti-Israel demonstrators. Mass violence ensued, but it wasn’t quelled by law enforcement until three hours later. Thomas faced criticism for failing to provide adequate security on campus before the attack broke out, but in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he claimed the administration’s account of events was “just not true.”
“I did everything I could to increase the police presence that we couldn’t provide because of our small department,” he said in defense of his actions.
Thomas was ultimately reassigned and replaced by Gawin Gibson as acting police chief, effective Tuesday, “pending an examination of our security processes,” Mary Osako, vice chancellor for UCLA Strategic Communications, said in a statement on Wednesday. “As we said on May 5, UCLA created a new Office of Campus Safety that is leading a thorough examination of our security processes aimed at enhancing the well-being and safety of our community.”
Thomas’s reassignment was first reported by the Daily Bruin Tuesday evening. In a text message to UCLA’s student-run newspaper, he said, “There’s been a lot going on and, I learned late yesterday that I’m temporarily reassigned from my duties as chief.” It’s unclear where the former UCLA police chief was reassigned to.
On April 26, a day after the anti-Israel encampment had been set up, Osako said UCLA was “following University of California systemwide policy guidance, which directs us not to request law enforcement involvement preemptively, and only if absolutely necessary to protect the physical safety of our campus community.”
More than 200 encampment participants were arrested on the evening of May 1 and the morning of May 2, the Daily Bruin reported earlier this month. No protesters were arrested the night of April 30, despite the ensuing violence.
UCLA chancellor Gene Block, who announced the creation of the Office of Campus Safety, is slated to testify on Thursday before a House committee regarding the recent antisemitic protests that rocked UCLA. The presidents of Northwestern University and Rutgers University are also expected to testify.