Cal Poly protesters detail events that led to clash with police outside job fair

Cal Poly students involved in the pro-Palestine protest that ended in a clash with police and eight arrests on Tuesday said officers were aggressive from the start, while the university and police maintain the group was trying to storm into the Recreation Center where a career fair was being held.

About 20 people participated in the protest Tuesday afternoon, marching through campus to the Rec Center, protesting weapons manufacturing companies such as General Atomics and Lockheed Martin recruiting students at the university’s Winter Career Fair.

The demonstration turned violent when the university said protesters tried to use barricades to break into the building.

Videos provided to The Tribune show several protesters carrying large wooden signs shaped like riot shields pulling on the barricades as police pushed them back, before other officers run up to assist.

The videos then show an officer throwing one protester to the ground, tackling him and hitting him multiple times.

The San Luis Obispo Police Department said in a news release Tuesday evening that one of its officers “was forced to protect himself when a protester attempted to take one of his weapons.” The officer responded with a hand strike “to retain his weapon,” the department said. The department said it would review the incident to see if policies were followed.

Cal Poly art and design professor Elizabeth Folk saw the incident, and said the protester did not try to take a weapon from the police officer.

“I have had this student in my class, and he is a sweet, intelligent, curious individual. It was really hard to watch how things played out yesterday,” she wrote in a statement to the Tribune.

She criticized the officer’s use of force during the protest.

“If there is going to be a campus police force, de-escalation has to be their primary objective,” Folk said in the statement. “This is not what happened yesterday — it was pure reaction and almost zero verbal communication with the protesters. There needs to be a focus on community safety and collaboration between admin and students.”

Eight protesters were eventually arrested and booked at San Luis Obispo County Jail on charges ranging from resisting a peace officer to inciting a riot. Three of those arrested were Cal Poly students.

Cal Poly spokesman Matt Lazier said some officers and protesters who were arrested “indicated they had suffered minor injuries,” but none needed medical attention.

On Wednesday, Lazier said that the District Attorney’s Office will decide what charges, if any, are appropriate to file in the case, and he reiterated Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong’s stance that “the university supports free speech but no violence, disruption, trespassing, or other criminal activities,” noting that the protesters tried to force entry into a private event.

The Tribune also reached out to the Police Department for further comment about its officers’ response, but the department only referred back to its original news release for the time being.

Cal Poly protesters question police response

“The police were pretty aggressive from the start,” said one of the leaders of the group, public health senior Samir Ibrahim.

After marching through campus, Ibrahim said the protesters gathered near the ASI Poly Escapes equipment rental shop outside the Rec Center.

Police officers “got up in our faces” and told them to leave, Ibrahim said.

Instead, he said, the protesters walked up the stairs toward the entrance to the Rec Center, which was partially blocked by metal barriers.

Materials engineering junior Daria Birkholz said police shoved the protesters and told them to leave again. But soon, the officers backed up and stopped making contact.

Birkholz said she was standing near the middle of the group, while Ibrahim led chants from the back.

Then, while the protesters were chanting, Birkholz said officers walked forward with the metal barrier and pushed on the group. During that confrontation, police then arrested Janine Santos, according to Birkholz. The Tribune does not have a video of this arrest.

“I just saw shouting, and then all of a sudden I just saw two big-ass cops slam Janine into the ground,” she said. “Janine’s head hit the concrete hard.”

“I started freaking out. I was just like, ‘You’re going to kill my friend,’” Birkholz said.

Birkholz rushed toward the officers yelling, “Stop! What are you doing?” She said an officer then pointed at her and said, “You’re next.”

Two officers then grabbed her arms and put her in handcuffs, while instructing her not to resist arrest.

“How am I supposed to resist two, 300-pound men grabbing my arms? I didn’t even know what was happening at first,” she said.

Police detained Santos and Birkholz inside the Recreation Center, where the pair watched police arrest six more people.

“I look out the window, and I see people getting slammed on the ground. I see cops punching people,” Birkholz said. “It was just brutality.”

An officer threw one protester to the ground, tackling him and hitting him multiple times, as shown in videos shared with The Tribune.

When police detained the other protesters inside the Rec Center, the group started chanting.

“Every single person was shouting ‘Free Palestine,’” Birkholz said. “No one was getting crushed by the intimidation. Everyone was so confident, so dedicated. That was inspiring.”

Birkholz said she was arrested at noon and transported to the jail at about 1:15 p.m. but wasn’t escorted out of the van until about 3:50 p.m. She was released from jail late Monday night.

After police arrested almost half of the protesters, they ordered the rest of the group to leave the Rec Center.

One of the officers was “really aggressive” with Ibrahim, he said.

“He was standing there, looking at me, trying to get all in my face,” Ibrahim said. “I tried to hold my ground a little bit.”

Ibrahim said he was speaking into a megaphone as he backed up towards the stairs. When he turned around to walk away, an officer shoved him — sending him stumbling down the steps, video shows.

“I was just jarred,” he said. “In the moment, I was all adrenaline.”

Video shows the officers ordering the protesters to leave, with the one who pushed him saying, “You come back here, you’re going to jail.”

Ibrahim responds by walking back toward the stairs and reaching his foot out onto the top step, in front of the officer, who then lunges at him saying “you’re going to jail,” before Ibrahim retreats.

“Then walk away,” the officer says, backing up as others converge and the moment de-escalates.

Eight people arrested and booked at SLO County Jail

The San Luis Obispo County Jail booking log shows eight people were booked and eventually released in relation to the protest.

Ollie Lamkin, the student who was tackled and hit, was arrested on suspicion of charges of misdemeanor resisting arrest, misdemeanor removing a weapon that is not a firearm from a peace officer, misdemeanor inciting a riot and felony resisting a peace officer with threats or violence. A jail employee told The Tribune the felony charge may change. As of Tuesday, Lamkin’s bail was set at $50,000.

Birkholz, Alejandro Buparo, Raleigh Daniel Delk, Sarah Heath, Marcus Hicks and Timothy Jouet were all arrested on suspicion of charges of felony resisting an executive officer and misdemeanor inciting a riot.

Bail was set at $50,000 for Delk and Heath, according to the jail front desk employee, but bail was unknown for the four other protesters as of Tuesday night.

Santos was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery of a peace officer, according to the jail booking log.

All eight people had been released from jail by the end of the night.

The SLO Bail Fund is collecting money to reimburse the protesters for their bail costs through Venmo at venmo.com/u/SLOBailFund.

Students protest weapons manufacturing companies at career fair

Ibrahim said the protesters want Cal Poly to take a stronger stance against Israel’s military operation in Gaza that came in the wake of the deadly Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

They also don’t want the university to support defense contractors who provide weapons used in the war.

The protesters urged President Jeffrey Armstrong to call Israel’s attack on Gaza a genocide and end Cal Poly’s relationship with weapons manufacturers, Ibrahim said.

“Again and again, Armstrong and the administration (are) showing they don’t care about what’s happening in Gaza,” Ibrahim said. “They’re not just silent, but they’re complicit — allowing these companies to come here and recruit our peers to go build missiles.”

Ibrahim called on Cal Poly to show “support for all student groups, not only Jewish or Pro-Israel perspectives on campus.”

“As a Palestinian student, I feel like Armstrong has not addressed Palestinian voices,” Ibrahim said. “They’ve mentioned the rise of anti-Semitism, but not the rise of Islamophobia.”