UCLA faculty call for admin to defund police

In an open letter to administrators, a UCLA faculty coalition called for ending the school’s relationship with the LAPD and other police departments and security agencies as well as defunding the UCPD. The letter also mentioned “reinvesting resources from policing toward teaching, research, and community initiatives that support Black life and racial and gender justice.”

“Today, once again, UCLA is resorting to gestures of racial justice rather than undertaking the difficult but necessary work of divestment from policing,” read the letter addressed to nearly 40 administrators.

In July, the coalition offered administrators an alternative to community safety, demanding the establishment of a Divestment/Investment Council led by faculty instead of the Public Safety Advisory Council. The December letter reiterated those demands.

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“The urgency of adopting such a model is apparent,” the December letter said.

Their website states the coalition’s goal is “implementing the goal of divestment from the police state and investing in reparative public goods towards the horizon of abolition.”

The collective was started in June after the LAPD used the school’s Jackie Robinson Stadium as a field jail to detain hundreds of protesters arrested for curfew violations during the height of the George Floyd uprisings in Los Angeles.

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Ever since the coalition has hosted various related events. 

In October, the coalition co-hosted the “UCLA Cops Off Campus Rally.” In November, alongside Black Lives Matter LA and other groups, the coalition organized a collective “remembrance”  at the Jackie Robinson Stadium. 

Then, in December, the coalition released a three-part video series of the “remembrance” event titled “Prisoners Made Here,”  “Stolen Lives, Stolen Land,” and “We Keep Each Other Safe.”

Campus Reform reached out to UCLA for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @JezzamineWolk