Should pro-Palestinian campus protesters be charged? LA weighs decision while OC pushes forward

The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office has received more than 300 referrals over protesters arrested at Pro-Palestinian protests in recent months at UCLA and USC, with prosecutors still reviewing whether to pursue misdemeanor charges against them.

More than a month after the Orange County District Attorney’s Office became the first Southern California law enforcement agency to file charges against a wide swath of protesters involved in the recent wave of student-led activism over the Israel-Hamas war, it isn’t yet clear if other agencies will follow their lead.

The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office — which handles misdemeanor prosecutions — acknowledged receiving 210 referrals related to protests at UCLA and 93 for protests at USC. A spokesperson for the agency indicated that those cases are still under review.

It isn’t clear when a decision will be made whether to prosecute the Los Angeles protesters. The statute of limitations for misdemeanors in California is one year.

The Orange County prosecutions — all related to May 15 arrests at the UC Irvine campus — largely focused on misdemeanor failure-to-disperse charges, though some defendants were also charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest and one person was charged with vandalism.

In all, 50 defendants — including two UCI professors, a teaching assistant, 26 students and 21 other individuals — were charged in connection with the UCI protest.

Those without criminal records most likely will enter a court diversion program rather than face time behind bars. During the first round of court appearances in a Santa Ana courtroom on Oct. 16, three of the first ten defendants to stand before a magistrate judge immediately agreed to complete 30 hours of community service to avoid a misdemeanor conviction.

What impact, if any, the charges will have on the future academic careers of students is not yet clear. UCI staff charged with misdemeanors in connection with the protest have reported no disciplinary actions by campus administrators.

Supporters of the UCI protesters — including attorneys with the Council on American-Islamic Relations — have argued that those charged in Orange County are facing harsher legal repercussions than protesters arrested on Los Angeles-area college campuses.

Dina Cheheta, a civil rights attorney with the council who is working with the Orange County defendants, described the charges as “very politically motivated” in comments following the earlier court hearing. The ACLU has also urged prosecutors to drop the charges against the UCI protest defendants, arguing that such a decision would “demonstrate that the county values the ability to freely exchange ideas and protects the right to non-violent protest.”

The demonstrations — and arrests — at UCLA, USC and UC Irvine came in the midst of a wave of protests at college campuses across the country, as student protesters and supporters called for campus leaders to divest from companies with ties to Israel and weapon manufacturers and to support an end to the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, among other demands.

The larger protests in Los Angeles included the arrest of more than 200 students, staff members and supporters at UCLA on May 2 as law enforcement agencies at the direction of campus leaders took down a protest encampment, as well as the arrest of 93 protesters and supporters on suspicion of trespassing at USC’s Alumni Park on April 24.

More than 3,000 people were arrested in connection with the Pro-Palestinian protest nationwide, according to a national analysis by the New York Times in late July, but many of those charges have been dropped.