Tongva Steps, UCLA, May 2nd 2024

The roar of the helicopters is loud, but our chants are louder. I’m sitting on a hill on the UCLA campus and it’s around 11:30 local time. Students are saying that the sweep will begin possibly around 1am-6am. The crowd and chanting feels enlivening to my soul but I feel like I could be more useful handing out water so I just spent some time lugging around a 24 pack into the crowd. I came up with a chant I’m too afraid to share but it goes something like this. 

Fuck newsom,

Fuck bass,

LAPD kiss my ass. 

I feel out of place on a college campus that isn’t my own but I’m here as a body to defend the encampment. I expect if I’m here come 1am I will be arrested. There’s a part of me that welcomes it, and there’s a part of me that wonders if it will show up on a job application. The students here make me feel that ultimately it doesn’t matter. Calling out genocide trumps all of that. 

***

I can feel my lack of sleep from the night before getting to me. The crowd feels calmer now, you can hear the helicopters and more crowd chatter. 

“I hate how quiet it is right now it feels so tense.” 

*** 

The police have encircled the encampment. Chants grow louder. The tension feels palpable now. 

“LAPD, KKK, IOF you’re all the same!”

“Stop fucking chanting save your energy!”

***

It’s a little chaotic. People are angry the cops got through. One person is shouting “fuck the people in the yellow vests.” 

*** 

The cops have entered and swiftly left the encampment. 

*** 

Funny how that was the last thing I wrote before getting thrown to the ground and arrested by CHP. 

***

Back at home now. Resting, trying to figure out what I need to take care of myself. Documenting everything that happened. 

The most tender moments were shared in that bus ride back. Pete Seeger songs. Chants (we did my chant and they liked it!). An attempt to teach us an Arabic chant for Palestine. Trauma bonding in the exact same moment together. I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget the student that said they were at the encampment and saw the smallest professor shout “you can arrest me but just don’t hurt my students.” 

Free Palestine