This post was updated May 19 at 7:47 p.m.

Locking arms to create a human shield in the Palestine solidarity encampment with respected faculty, staff and students to protect peaceful college students from state-sanctioned violence enabled by UCLA was one of the most horrific events I’ve witnessed. It’s why I’m joining cross-campus activism demanding the resignation of Chancellor Gene Block.

Although the UCLA Academic Senate failed to pass a no-confidence vote in Block on Thursday, the campus community is still scarred and mourning a wound created by an institution of higher education we loved and believed in. It is plain and clear that under Block’s leadership, the UCLA administration actively decided to betray its values of diversity, equity and justice to commit atrocities on its own students.

As someone who is a double Bruin and has deep, childhood connections to the Westwood community, from organizing on the frontlines for racial justice, decolonization and student advocacy throughout Los Angeles County – what I saw normalized at the No. 1 public university in response to human rights demands for Palestinians was one the most mortifying events I’ve ever seen in education.

This travesty mirrored our nation’s dark chapters of suppression of free speech during anti-Vietnam War college actions, was similar to civil disobedience during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and had war zone parallels – but nowhere near the normalized brutality committed against civilians in Gaza. The events that transpired break the illusion of powerful liberal establishments’ commitment to social equality.

While falsely painted as agitators in the media, in actuality, the overwhelming majority of protesters were peaceful college students displaying intersectional unity across all backgrounds. There was representation of diverse communities from across the globe and inclusion of all identities in terms of gender, culture, sexuality, religion, citizenship status, age, class and disability.

Instead of seeing the beauty of this historic civic action and choosing de-escalation strategies and negotiation, UCLA administration decided to deploy LAPD, UCPD and California Highway Patrol in an Orwellian fashion. They used rubber bullets, tear gas, batons and stun grenades – tactics of psychological warfare, inhumanity and physical cruelty that likely violated state laws.

Of course, immense taxpayer dollars for police brutality could be deployed toward unarmed college students advocating for human rights and taking a stand against massacres of children. But April 30, when students were brutally attacked by a violent mob on their own campus the night prior, UCLA and law enforcement could find no resources to protect them.

Seeing firsthand our campus looking like a dystopian war zone, making international news headlines, and having my own beloved friends, colleagues, students, staff and professors arrested or hospitalized because of horrific cruelty in the name of school safety was nothing short of scarring.

UCLA administration, you have failed our community and will only radicalize a generation of changemakers to mobilize in stronger levels.

These injustices were committed around the anniversary of the 1990s LA uprising – a historic racial justice movement against police brutality in the wake of Rodney King’s beating. How shameful and poetic that history repeated itself, with police misconduct enacted against peaceful protesters who were disproportionately people of color.

This sets a dangerous precedent in a political climate already rotten with the sins of authoritarianism, colonial violence, law enforcement’s misuse of force and generational trauma from school shootings.

Additionally, this creates even more distrust with political establishments and higher education decision makers throughout the nation. We demand answers in the wake of this historic abuse of power.

I’m proud of the countless faculty and educators who have taken bold stances, graduate student unions, political organizations and student governments uniting to condemn injustice. The brave activists, a part of a collective movement who risked their safety and took on the brunt of labor to coordinate recent actions, must be uplifted and applauded for their sacrifices and contributions.

I write as a call to action to organize for Block’s resignation, divestment from genocide and amnesty protections for all bold activists. May this awaken a new student activist movement to challenge abuse of power – in the greater LA education community and at universities across the nation.

This should be a reckoning for the status quo in general, signaling a great need to disrupt elitist spaces of academia that censor freedom of speech, defend ethnic studies and decolonial programs in spaces of learning and hold our public institutions sworn to serve us in the name of “public safety” accountable.

Taking precedent from the resignation of UC Davis’ chancellor after overseeing a police pepper spray scandal perpetrated against student protesters, if the UC Davis community could oust its chancellor, UCLA can be victorious with the same demand.

Sebastian Cazares is a double Bruin who graduated as a political science student in 2022 and will be earning a master’s degree of public policy this summer. He is also a lifelong activist, community organizer and civic leader for causes such as student safety, civil rights, racial justice and decolonization – also serving as a public official as one of LA County’s youngest-ever elected school board members.