Professors at UCLA published a letter this week in response to the death of George Floyd that called on university officials to end its relationship with the Los Angeles Police Department. According to the professors, the university must end its “collaboration” with the LAPD and move ” towards the divestment of UCLA from LAPD and other forms of policing.”
According to a report by Campus Reform, professors at the UCLA are urging university officials to end their relationship with the Los Angeles Police Department in the wake of social unrest over the death of George Floyd.
Protests and riots have broken out in major cities around the United States over the past several weeks. In the letter, professors claim that the LAPD used a UCLA facility during a riot event to detain protesters and process arrests.
The letter, which was published on June 2, urges UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block and Executive Vice-Chancellor Emily A. Carter to reconsider the university’s relationship with local police. The letter specifically urges Block and Carter to “divest” the university from the LAPD, part of ending its “collaboration.”
We write to express our deep concern about these events and the matter of UCLA collaboration with LAPD and other police forces. In recent days, UCLA leadership has shared statements of solidarity denouncing institutionalized racism and recognizing the importance of protest against such racism. Last night’s use of Jackie Robinson Stadium stands in sharp hypocrisy to these statements. We have heard from our students and we agree that such solidarity statements must be accompanied not by collaboration with the police but by concrete steps that move us towards the divestment of UCLA from LAPD and other forms of policing, similar to the prompt action taken by the President of the University of Minnesota following the murder of Mr. George Floyd. In the coming months, we intend to work towards this goal in partnership with student and community organizations. We look forward to being in dialogue and alliance with you on this.
Breitbart News reported last week that young and college-educated Americans are more likely to support the riot protests that emerged in response to George Floyd’s death. 58 percent of respondents with a four-year college degree said that the riots were “fully or partially justified.”
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.