Just over a year ago a Stanford undergrad wrote a story for the Atlantic about what it was like to be on campus in the wake of Hamas’ 10/7 attack on Israel. David wrote about it here at the time but in case you missed it, here’s a sample of what Theo Baker wrote.
One of the section leaders for my computer-science class, Hamza El Boudali, believes that President Joe Biden should be killed. “I’m not calling for a civilian to do it, but I think a military should,” the 23-year-old Stanford University student told a small group of protesters last month. “I’d be happy if Biden was dead.” He thinks that Stanford is complicit in what he calls the genocide of Palestinians, and that Biden is not only complicit but responsible for it. “I’m not calling for a vigilante to do it,” he later clarified, “but I’m saying he is guilty of mass murder and should be treated in the same way that a terrorist with darker skin would be (and we all know terrorists with dark skin are typically bombed and drone striked by American planes).” El Boudali has also said that he believes that Hamas’s October 7 attack was a justifiable act of resistance, and that he would actually prefer Hamas rule America in place of its current government (though he clarified later that he “doesn’t mean Hamas is perfect”). When you ask him what his cause is, he answers: “Peace.”…
During a mandatory freshman seminar on October 10, a lecturer named Ameer Loggins tossed out his lesson plan to tell students that the actions of the Palestinian “military force” had been justified, that Israelis were colonizers, and that the Holocaust had been overemphasized, according to interviews I conducted with students in the class. Loggins then asked the Jewish students to identify themselves. He instructed one of them to “stand up, face the window, and he kind of kicked away his chair,” a witness told me. Loggins described this as an effort to demonstrate Israel’s treatment of Palestinians…
The class Loggins taught is called COLLEGE, short for “Civic, Liberal, and Global Education,” and it is billed as an effort to develop “the skills that empower and enable us to live together.”
His article, all of which is worth reading, was published in late March 2024. By that point the initial campus occupation by pro-Palestinian students had already been cleared. However, that wasn’t the end of it. In June a smaller group of activists took things up a notch by taking over a building and occupying the president’s office.
Pro-Palestine protesters entered and barricaded themselves inside Building 10, the president’s office, located in Main Quad, at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, which marks Stanford’s last day of classes for spring quarter. Protestors plan to remain in the building until the University meets demands or they are forcibly removed.
Around 10 students are barricaded in the building, while about 50 others surrounded the building with linked arms. Once inside, protestors barricaded doors with bike locks, chains, ladders and chairs and covered security cameras with tin foil. Outside, protesters spray painted on a window, “Our office now,” and chanted, “Palestine will be free, we will free Palestine.”
That takeover did not result in any change in Palestine but did result in 13 people being arrested.
Police arrested 13 people at Stanford University after pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied the school president and provost’s offices early Wednesday, causing what officials described as “extensive” vandalism inside and outside the building…
Demonstrators cheered in support of those being arrested as the detainees were escorted out of the building and loaded into law enforcement vehicles…
In addition to the damage indoors, the president and provost said there was extensive graffiti on the sandstone buildings and columns of the Main Quad. Video posted on social media showed police busting in a door. Other photos showed an office desk splattered with a red liquid.
Here’s a bit of what that looked like.
BREAKING: Police drag out and arrest Stanford University students who have occupied the university president’s office.
Students are demanding Stanford divest from Israel and are calling on students across the country to take action as Israel intensifies attack on Rafah. pic.twitter.com/ajxVus2pBi
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) June 5, 2024
On Thursday of this week, twelve of those individuals were charged with felonies for the building takeover. Santa Clara County issued a statement about the charges:
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has charged a dozen people for breaking into a Stanford University campus building last year, barricading themselves inside, and vandalizing administrative offices.
During the takeover, the 12 masked individuals – whose ages ranged from 19 to 32 – broke windows and furniture, splashed fake blood, and disabled security cameras. Damages were estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars…
The interior of Building 10 suffered significant damage during the occupation. This included damage caused by forced entry into offices, ransacked office space, damaged doorframes and furniture, and items damaged by fake blood spattered throughout the building. The protesters’ backpacks containing food and tools were recovered inside the building. The tools included forcible entry tools such as an electric grinder, hammers, crowbars, chisels, screwdrivers, goggles, numerous straps, and cables.
The statement goes on to explain that after searching the phones of the arrestees, police found detailed operational plans including prior surveillance of the building.
Multiple cell phones were recovered from the arrestees. All the phones, other than the one seized from a student reporter, were searched pursuant to signed search warrants. A review of the cell phone data resulted in detailed communication about the planning and commission of the conspiracy, including encrypted text-messages and links to detailed operational plans. The communication indicated the suspects met on multiple occasions, days in advance, to conspire to take over the building. It also contained discussions about pre-operational surveillance, forcing entry into the building, using lookouts to alert suspects to responding law enforcement, wearing layered clothing and/or changing clothes in an attempt to avoid being identified, bringing supplies and tools required for the takeover, and practicing barricading techniques. The communication included a “DO-IT-YOURSELF OCCUPATION GUIDE,” which included the following quote:
“Vandalism? Occupying a space removes the space from the capitalist landscape. A group may decide it is better to destroy or vandalize a space than to return it to its usual role in good condition. The role of vandalism may be different in each situation, but it should not be disowned outright.”
The activists tried to hide their pre-takeover communications but failed. DA Jeff Rosen described how to the NY Times.
Mr. Rosen said the 12 protesters attempted to hide their communication, including the deletion from their phones of the Signal messaging app, through which they had exchanged messages shortly before their arrests.
He said his investigators were able to “work around” the protesters’ attempts to conceal their planning and found they had surveilled the building; studied the patterns of local police officers and security guards; and assigned themselves specific tasks, such as who would break the window and who would use a crowbar to pry open the door.
DA Rosen isn’t looking for the 12 activists to face prison time.
Mr. Rosen said he did not want to see the 12 Stanford protesters serve prison time. Instead, he said, he would like them to plead guilty and to join the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s work program, in which they would clean highways or government buildings.
“This is kind of biblical,” he said. “You trashed a building, so your punishment should be cleaning things up.”
We’ll see if any of them agree or if they decide to fight this in court. My own thought is that a little prison time wouldn’t hurt.
As mentioned, 13 people were arrested but only 12 were charged. That’s because one of the individuals arrested was a student reporter who had embedded with the activists but did not participate in the illegal entry or vandalism.
DA charges 12 Stanford pro-Palestinian protesters with felonies
Rosen said that in the process, the group broke windows, furniture, disabled a camera and splashed fake blood.The damages are estimated to be between $360,000 to $1 million.
Video: ABC7 pic.twitter.com/ffo2reGkmz
— Steve Gruber (@stevegrubershow) April 11, 2025
