This Friday, April 5, local police arrested 20 students demonstrating at Pomona College’s Alexander Hall, following Pomona administration’s attempted removal of a mock apartheid wall.
19 of the students were arrested inside Alexander Hall at Pomona on charges of trespassing in response to a call authorized by Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr. The other student was held on a charge of obstructing/delaying an officer. Those arrested who attend Pomona will be issued interim suspensions, according to an email sent to faculty at 8:32 p.m. by Starr.
These arrests come eight days after Pomona Divest From Apartheid (PDFA) initiated a sleep-in on the lawn in front of Smith Campus Center (SCC) as part of a demonstration for Palestine Liberation Week.
In an email sent Friday afternoon, Starr stated that participants involved in the sleep-in voluntarily removed their tents from the SCC lawn earlier that morning. However, tensions rose after campus staff began removing demonstration materials from the area in recognition of the college’s policies and preparation for several events scheduled to take place at the SCC on Sunday.
This included a “mock apartheid wall” constructed by PDFA at the start of the sleep-in. The wall, which consisted of eight wooden panels, was hand-painted by students with various phrases and images regarding divestment and Palestinian liberation.
By 2 p.m., five of the eight panels had been removed. Approximately three dozen student protesters gathered around the remaining panels in an effort to prevent campus staff from removing them. Many students filmed the members of campus security and Pomona administration that were scattered around them.
In her email, Starr stated that several individuals during this process “proceeded to verbally harass staff, even using a sickening, anti-black racial slur in addressing an administrator.”
Starr condemned this “harassment,” which she claimed went on for two hours. She also condemned students’ refusal to identify themselves, as many concealed their identities with masks.
“There is absolutely no excuse for this harassment; and there is no excuse for refusal to identify yourself on our campus,” she said.
Students rotated through a series of chants as they continued to stand around the panels, including “Israel bombs, Pomona pays: How many kids did you kill today” and “Camp sec, KKK, IOF you’re all the same.”
As the protest continued, students moved to Alexander Hall, where they proceeded to make their way to Starr’s office to continue voicing their demands.
At this point, Starr authorized a call to the Claremont Police Department (CPD). In her email to faculty, she explained that this was because protestors refused to comply with orders asking them to identify themselves and to evacuate the space.
“It is not acceptable for the safety of our community to have individuals on our campus who conceal their identities and refuse to identify themselves when asked,” the email read. “I will not countenance masked individuals occupying a building.”
Meanwhile, approximately 44 individuals gathered around the steps outside of Alexander Hall and the surrounding area.
Then, at 5:02 p.m., eight police cars arrived alongside North College Avenue with their sirens blaring. Five minutes later, at 5:07 p.m., the cars left, driving towards the Claremont Village.
By 5:20 p.m., a group of about 17 students faced Alexander Hall and began a series of chants, including “Divestment is our demand, no peace on stolen land,” and “Gabi Starr, you can’t hide, genocide is televised.”
Twenty minutes later, 22 police cars from CPD and the Azusa, Covina and Pomona Police Departments arrived on the scene, parking along North College Avenue and Sixth Street. Approximately 24 police officers dressed in full riot gear, filed out and organized in a line along the street, facing Alexander Hall and manning batons.
The first arrests occurred at 6:33 p.m., when students were led out of Alexander Hall by police officers and detained with zip ties before being placed in a police van waiting on the street. While students were met with cheers and support from the crowd, police officers were met with booing.
Following the first set of arrests, one protester called for unwavering support of those still inside.
“We are staying here until all of our comrades come out of Alexander Hall,” the student said.
At 6:43 p.m., three more students were arrested and placed in the same van as the other detainees, which departed to the police department several minutes later.
The protest and surrounding crowd outside of Alexander Hall continued to grow, with a student protester at one point urging people to call on their friends to join. Some of the chants were directed at divestment, a leading goal of prominent on-campus groups such as PDFA.
“What do we want? Divestment. When do we want it? Now,” the protesters chanted.
The final arrests were made at 7:18 p.m. with the detained students and the rest of the CPD officers leaving the area soon after.
At around 7:25 p.m., the police van that had taken the arrested students at Pomona pulled into the Claremont Police Department. Dozens of students were already gathered in front and met the van of detained protesters chanting, “No justice, no peace. Fuck the racist police,” while a line of police holding batons stood inside the police department’s gate.
At 7:48 p.m., students announced that CPD was refusing to disclose the location of students and an announcement following 12 minutes later that the arrested students would be released in two to three hours.
Students and faculty continued to rally outside the station, chanting and passing out pizzas.
At 9:25 p.m. the first five students were released followed by five more at around 10:45 p.m. The final nine were released by 12:11 a.m.
Mark Kendall, chief communications officer at Pomona College, commented on the college’s actions in an email to TSL.
“We continue to uphold the right to free speech and to protest within the lines of our long-established Claremont Colleges demonstration policy. We will not permit the presence of masked, unidentified individuals on our campus refusing to show identification when asked. Nor will we stand for harassment of visitors or racial slurs shouted at college employees – all of which have taken place this week,” the email states.
Reia Li, Dania Anabtawi, Hannah Frasure and Mariana Duran contributed reporting.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
This article was updated 11:20 p.m. April 5 to include a comment from Pomona College Chief Communications Officer Mark Kendall.
This article was updated 12:47 a.m. April 6 to include further details.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said Claremont Police arrested a total of 19 students. The correct number of arrests is 20.
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