Partisan Defense Committee Letter

28 September 2024

Partisan Defense Committee P.O. Box 99, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013

email: partisandefense@earthlink.net   www.partisandefense.org

Contact: Kevin Gilroy (212) 406-4252

The following letter was written by the Partisan Defense Committee.

Todd Spitzer
Orange County District Attorney
300 North Flower Street
Santa Ana, CA 92703
Sent by email [media@ocdapa.org] & by mail

UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman
UCI Office of the Chancellor
510 Aldrich Hall
Irvine, CA 92697-1900
Sent by email [chancellor@uci.edu] & by mail

28 September 2024

The Partisan Defense Committee protests your offices’ ongoing retaliatory actions against the May 15 pro-Palestine protesters at UC Irvine. Close to fifty were arrested that day. Many students have since suffered suspensions and banning by the UC Irvine administration.

Now, four months later, on September 18, the OC D.A.’s office has announced it will be pressing charges against ten of the protesters, including faculty, students and other activists. The D.A. also announced prosecutors are still “reviewing the evidence” against the remaining arrestees.

Outrageously alleging that the protest was a riot, the D.A. is charging the ten with various counts including failure to disperse at the scene of a riot and resisting arrest. On top of that, Tiffany Willoughby Herard, a black Associate Professor of Global and International Studies, is facing a third bogus count of resisting a peace officer with the threat of violence.

We say: Drop all the charges! Lift all suspensions and bans with full reinstatement! No reprisals! Cops off campus! Hands off the pro-Palestine protesters!

Sheri Stoll
For the Partisan Defense Committee