UCLA creates post to oversee safety after Mob Attack

I’ve shortened the headline from the Miami Herald but kept the Mob Attack wording- full headline below

UCLA creates high-level post to oversee campus safety after security lapses in mob attack

As mentioned in the post published when this incident occurred this was a mob attack of the protestors. No matter the obfuscation of the day. It was clear a large pro Israel mob attacked the protestors

Israel’s Supporters Attack UCLA Protestors

So, excerpts from the Miami Herald as follows

UCLA has moved swiftly to create a new chief safety officer position to oversee campus security operations, including the police department, in the wake of what have been called serious lapses in handling protests that culminated in a mob attack on a pro-Palestinian student encampment last week.

“The well-being of our students, faculty and staff is paramount.” The move is intended to immediately address campus security shortfalls that left UCLA students and others involved in the protest encampment to fend for themselves against attackers for three hours before law enforcement moved in to quell the melee.

Three sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly, told the Los Angeles Times that Thomas failed to provide a repeatedly requested written security plan to campus leadership on how he planned to keep the campus safe in various scenarios, including rallies, skirmishes and violence.

Thomas is UCLA's "top cop"

He failed to secure external law enforcement to assist UCLA police and private security in safeguarding the encampment area before the mob attack, despite authorization to do so with as much overtime payment as needed, the sources said. Thomas also assured leadership that it would take just "minutes" to mobilize law enforcement to quell violence. It actually took three hours to assemble enough officers before they moved in to intervene.

Thomas, in an interview late Friday night, disputed that account as inaccurate and said he did “everything I could” to safeguard the community in a week of strife that left UCLA reeling.

A large group of counterprotesters, some dressed in black outfits with white masks, stormed the area Tuesday night through Wednesday morning and assaulted campers, tore down barricades, hurled wood and other objects (fireworks, sprayed with bear mace hit with poles, sticks, whatever) into the camp and at those inside. ( For 3 hours) Campers, some holding lumber and wearing goggles and helmets, sought to defend themselves with pepper spray and other means. Several were injured, including four Daily Bruin student journalists.

The UC external investigation is expected to move quickly and focus more on lessons to be learned rather than individuals to be blamed, a UC source said. But internal calls for Thomas to step aside are growing, the sources said. And the vice chancellor he reports to – Beck – is also being scrutinized.

Chancellor Gene Block announced Sunday that Rick Braziel, a former Sacramento police chief who has reviewed law enforcement responses in high-profile cases across the country, will serve as associate vice chancellor of a new Office of Campus Safety

Rick Braziel- Braziel previously was tapped to review police actions in the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting; riots in Ferguson, Mo.; the shootout with former-LAPD-officer-turned-police-killer Christopher Dorner; and other cases

Review law enforcement responses or whitewash anomalies and failures? Uvalde and the incident with Dorner were odd, to say the least.