The attention grabbing quote in the headline in the LA Times leaves out two key words. The full quote is “I can’t focus on anything but rage since Friday.”
This is an important omission, because much of the anger and outrage over the last week relates to the college’s actions last Friday to:
- Forcibly remove an 8 panel “mock apartheid wall” installation so as to sanitize visible portions of campus of signs of protest before that weekend’s alumni and recruiting events on the main quad;
- To call in dozens of fully equipped riot police from Claremont and neighboring towns to arrest peaceful protestors;
- To not only immediately suspend all the arrested students without due process, but also to immediately kick them off campus, denying them access to their dorm rooms, beds, personal belongings, and meal programs. (By the time protesters were released from jail, all their access had been cut off.)
As an opinion piece in the school paper put it:
With such a strong response, it seems like admin’s main intention was to intimidate students from exercising their right to free speech, especially at times when their opinions may not align with that of the administration.
. . .
Pomona admin put students in danger past the arrests themselves.Rather than show consideration for the arrested students’ well-being, Pomona immediately revoked swipe access to dorms and campus buildings, meaning that as soon as police released students from the Claremont jail, the first thing on their mind was finding a roof overhead for the night and food the next day.
. . .
Calling for an excessive police force and embracing the militarization of campus — despite knowing what the imagery of police brutality and incarceration conjures in the minds of students, staff and faculty, and particularly the non-white 5C community — is heartless.This is especially salient given that student protestors had never become violent, per numerous TSL reports and my own experience witnessing the protests.
It also seems like the college president is unintentionally providing a Ted-Talk-level symposium on how to escalate and inflame tensions and ignite further protests, and so far that is how it is working out.