LOS ANGELES, CA MAY 6, 2024 More protests and arrests emerged at UCLA on Monday, May 6, 2024, with police arresting multiple people who gathered in a campus parking garage. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The University of California hired a law enforcement consulting firm to lead an independent investigation into UCLA’s planning and police response when violence broke out on campus between pro-Palestinian protesters and counter demonstrators last week, the public university system announced Tuesday.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said as 21st Century Policing Solutions, which also has been hired by other universities for on-campus safety concerns, will try to find the responsible for the violence, the LAPD and FBI will possibly be support the investigation.
Among the strategies of locating the attackers, facial recognition technology will likely be used, according to a former LAPD official.
"You can take a photo of you right now, and I can take that clip and drop it onto google image. And it will probably tell me who you are,” retired captain Paul Vernon said.
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The LA Times had also reported UCLA detectives are scanning hundreds of images as they work to identify the attackers.
If the FBI gets involved in the investigation, its investigators can obtain cellphone data to prove whether certain attackers were in the area on the night violence unfolded on the UCLA campus, according to Vernon.
But Vernon added that charging those responsible may be another challenge.
“Primarily you’re only going after those involved in a felony. That would be the ones related to the most serious injury,” Vernon said. “Now the question is: Can you tie that injury to that person? And among those people that you want to try to prosecute, how many of them have a defense of self-defense?”
There are also questions about why more than 40 people were detained in a UCLA parking garage Monday morning. They were mostly Pro-Palestinian protesters, but at least one journalist was detained too.
“I began filming, kept a respectful distance,” said Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, who is a writer and videographer.
Beckner-Carmitchel said early Monday he was shooting video of the group detained when officers detained him, too.
“They booked me, at all points refused to allow me to speak with anyone in charge in any meaningful way," Beckner-Carmitchel said. "I repeated over and over and over again that I was a member of the press, that I was just documenting, utilizing first amendment activity and was at one point told that was not their problem right now."
When NBC4 crews responded to the scene Monday morning, a UCLA police Lieutenant said the people were detained for delaying a police investigation though they didn’t clarify what investigation was delayed.
Organizers said that the protesters involved were on their way to take part in a sit-in protest at Dodd and Moore Hall.
Beckner-Carmitchel said after several hours in a jail cell, police eventually apologized and told him they would not proceed with charges. He said he had nothing to do with the protest.
“I cover a lot of protests and things like that. I can’t stress enough I’ve never even seen these kids before,” said Beckner-Carmitchel, who is now considering his legal options.
UCLA leadership and police have not responded to NBC4's repeated requests for an on-camera interview.
