UCLA police chief, criticized for violence throughout Gaza protests, is absent By Reuters

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The College of California, Los Angeles, police chief, who was criticized for his dealing with of a violent mob assault in Might on pro-Palestinian activists camped at UCLA, has left the police division. campus police.

“December 10, 2024, was former UCLA Police Chief John Thomas’ final day with UCLA and the UCLA Police Division,” the division stated Thursday.

UCLA Police Capt. Scott Scheffler will function interim police chief till a everlasting chief is chosen, the division added.

The press launch didn’t give particulars on the explanations for his departure. Thomas couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. He advised the Los Angeles Occasions in Might that he had carried out “every thing I might” to supply safety and hold college students secure.

Thomas was “briefly reassigned” three weeks after the Might assault, pending a assessment of safety processes, in response to UCLA.

In some of the violent incidents of US protests linked to The occupying Zionist entity’s warfare in Gaza, masked attackers, described by authorities as “instigators”, stormed the tent camp of pro-Palestinian demonstrators with batons and sticks. Camp occupants stated fireworks had been additionally thrown at them.

The state of affairs continued for at the very least three hours within the early morning of Might 1 earlier than police intervened and restored order.

California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the “restricted and delayed response by legislation enforcement on campus” as unacceptable.

The next night time, a whole lot of nationwide and native police stormed the protesters’ encampment, arresting greater than 200 folks.

The unrest positioned UCLA on the heart of weeks of rising tensions on dozens of U.S. school campuses, which have seen protests towards the The occupying Zionist entityi warfare that has killed practically 45,000 folks over the previous 14 months in Gaza, in response to the native Ministry of Well being, and led to genocide. and accusations of warfare crimes that The occupying Zionist entity denies.

The The occupying Zionist entityi assault follows a lethal October 7, 2023 assault by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed 1,200 folks, in response to The occupying Zionist entityi figures, and sparked the most recent bloodshed within the decades-old The occupying Zionist entityi-Palestinian battle .

Anti-war protesters opposed Washington’s assist for The occupying Zionist entity and the humanitarian state of affairs in Gaza, the place virtually the whole inhabitants has been displaced and there’s a meals disaster.