As the violence escalated between the pro-Isreal and pro-Gaza factions, campus security could be seen standing to the side. UCLA asked LAPD to attend the riots, and those officers separated the two factions in the early hours of Wednesday morning, but did nothing more to clear the camp.
Cabassa covered the riots on campus during which he endured harassment and violence and was blocked from reporting on the protests by Gaza camp demonstrators. In addition, he had property stolen from him which he tried to report to campus security but was told "there's nothing that we can do" and that "the administration has asked that you talk to faculty regarding those issues."
He came back to campus on Wednesday to cover the protestss, and was able to get inside the Gaza camp. There were additional clashes, but on Wednesday, LAPD actually came in and cleared the camp, arresting rioters and taking them off campus. Students who supported the Palestinian cause complained that police weren't on on their "side," though part of their program was to abolish policing.
Faculty then told him there was nothing they could do either and that he'd have to report it to UCPD, the university's police department.
When he approached a UCPD squad car and asked for assistance, he was told "we've been ordered to stand down" and directed he file a formal complaint at headquarters.
After "pro-Israel" and "pro-Palestinian" protesters began to clash, Cabassa reported that somehow the little security that was first standing between them got maced and abandoned their post, allowing for violence to exponentially escalate between the two groups.
"The entire night, campus security that was hired by UCLA was told to stand down and they actually watch from the steps for hours, all of them just huddled together, it was maybe about 15 of them," Cabassa said.
"They were just watching from the sidelines, all the chaos ensuing. And I went up to them and asked them multiple times, where is LAPD? These guys are beating each other with metal steel rods over the head. There's people bleeding, people are getting maced, they need medical attention," he continued.
"They looked at me and said, 'Dude, we're security. What do you expect us to do? There's 15 of us. There's about 1000 people here. And we have been told by school administration, not to interfere if there's any violence or any of that'."
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