Pomona College moved graduation to Shrine, and protesters followed

When pro-Palestinian protesters arrange an encampment final week on the stage at Pomona Faculty the place commencement was set to be held, the college’s leaders determined to maneuver Sunday’s graduation to Los Angeles.

The commencement occurred on the Shrine Auditorium, kicking off at 6 p.m. However protesters additionally moved. A gaggle of greater than 100 congregated outdoors the auditorium Sunday afternoon and clashed with regulation enforcement. L.A. police mentioned protesters charged them, and one demonstrator mentioned officers struck individuals within the abdomen with batons.

The faculty had mentioned there can be further safety measures on the occasion, and dozens of Los Angeles Police Division officers have been current. Officers lined up outdoors the venue as protesters held up banners and shouted by means of bullhorns.

A number of Pomona Faculty graduates, wearing full regalia, led the gang in chanting, “Free Palestine.”

At instances, the demonstrators pushed and shoved with police as officers tried to safe the world across the auditorium. Officers told KABC-7 that some protesters charged at officers and one was arrested after trying to strike an officer.

Later, about 6:30 p.m., the protesters marched away from the Shrine Auditorium and gathered in a courtyard the place a Pomona Faculty scholar, sporting his commencement robe, learn a press release calling for an finish to the struggle and for universities to divest from monetary ties with Israel.

Tharwa Khalid, a member of a neighborhood chapter of the Palestinian Youth Motion, mentioned the protesters began on West thirty second Road and break up into two teams, one on thirty second Road and one other close to Jefferson Boulevard.

The dynamic with police escalated from “zero to 100 with no warning,” she mentioned.

Officers shoved Khalid and several other others, pushing some individuals to the bottom and putting them with batons, together with hitting a number of feminine protesters within the abdomen, Khalid mentioned.

“Plenty of my mates are bruised up proper now and usually are not doing properly bodily,” Khalid mentioned.

As officers pushed one Muslim protester to the bottom, they pulled off her scarf, Khalid mentioned.

Khalid mentioned she noticed a authorized observer with the Nationwide Attorneys Guild — sporting a neon inexperienced hat to be simply seen observing police exercise — shoved to the bottom by an officer.

“It simply reveals that they’re making an attempt to intimidate college students and punish them for exercising their 1st Modification rights,” Khalid mentioned.

By almost 7 p.m., many of the pro-Palestinian protesters had dispersed from the campus courtyard, and police had cordoned off an space surrounding the Shrine Auditorium.

A couple of relations of graduates arrived late to the ceremony with flowers in hand however have been briefly turned away from the police-tape line. An officer stepped in, nonetheless, and allowed them by means of so they might attend the commencement.

LAPD Officer Tony Im, a public data officer, mentioned he couldn’t present a press release or response Sunday night relating to what protesters alleged occurred as a result of he had not been briefed.

Pomona Faculty’s choice to maneuver its graduation got here after a call by USC to cancel its conventional principal campus graduation ceremony and maintain an alternative celebration on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The occasion Thursday featured fireworks and a drone present.

As at USC, pro-Palestinian protests have roiled the Pomona campus, with scholar activists demanding that the school publicly name for a cease-fire and divest faculty endowment funds from firms tied to Israel’s struggle in opposition to Hamas within the Gaza Strip and the occupation of the West Financial institution. In April, police sporting riot gear arrested 19 protesters who had occupied the school president’s workplace.

Instances workers author Jenny Gold contributed to this report.