Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Wednesday compared the violence at UCLA last week to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying it “came out of nowhere.”
Shortly before 11 p.m. April 30, a large group arrived on the Westwood campus and attacked pro-Palestinian protesters.
The mob ripped down barricades, hurled objects, launched fireworks and sprayed mace, injuring several at the encampment, which had been standing outside Royce Hall since April 25.
No one has been arrested in the attack. UCLA police are working with the Los Angeles police department and the FBI to identify the assailants.
“Frankly, it reminded me of Jan. 6,” said Bass, a former member of Congress who was at the Capitol complex when rioters stormed the government building in January 2021.
Bass has previously spoken in emotional terms about Jan. 6, calling it a tragedy that threatened the lives of journalists, emergency responders and others.
“I don’t think that however many people just all woke up at the same time and decided to go to UCLA,” said Bass, talking about the issue of coordination. “But the level of coordination and all, I have absolutely no idea about.”
UCLA Police Chief John Thomas has faced growing scrutiny for a string of serious security lapses after assuring the university leadership he could mobilize law enforcement in minutes, according to three sources who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Just days before, he had been asked to create a written safety plan as tensions on the campus skyrocketed, but he never did it, according to the sources.
Bass declined to weigh in on Thomas’ actions and whether he should resign, saying that is a university issue.
When the initial fight broke out, only six UCLA police officers were at the scene, and they were heavily outnumbered. Bass said that based on what she knows, she believes the LAPD responded appropriately.
In a televised interview with Fox 11, the mayor appeared to criticize the university for its lack of a plan.
“So calling a local [police] station while a protest is happening is not going to generate 80, 90, 100 police officers in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, it took hours,” Bass said. “I learned in this process that if you’re going to have a big problem like that, you have to notify law enforcement in advance so they can muster the troops.”
UC President Michael V. Drake has ordered an independent investigation led by Philadelphia’s former police chief.
Thomas has said he advised UCLA’s leadership from the beginning not to allow the encampment because it violated campus rules and he feared it could lead to escalating problems.
The chief said he developed a response that relied on private security and made sure to alert the LAPD if problems arose. He acknowledged that he did tell others it would be only minutes for a response, but said he was referring to a general response, not a force large enough to handle the melee that unfolded.
Thomas told The Times when a problem broke out, UCLA’s leadership authorized him to request mutual aid. But he said the LAPD told him there was a problem with the payment system between the city and the state so the arrangements “couldn’t be done by the time of the attack.”
On Wednesday, Bass rejected the notion that there was “some payment delay” to the LAPD and that the police force withheld service.
“That is absolutely false,” Bass said. “LAPD was not notified in time. And so when the request was made of LAPD — I don’t remember the exact time, but it was between 11 and 11:30 — I believe the attack had already been well underway.
“LAPD did not have the capacity on such short notice to mobilize full force,” the mayor said.
Bass said she returned early from Washington, D.C., early the morning after the attack after speaking on the phone with UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and LAPD Interim Chief Dominic Choi.
Bass, in the Fox 11 interview, also questioned why the university allowed the counterprotest to take place next to the pro-Palestinian encampment, which had been largely peaceful until then.