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Cal Poly Humboldt<\/span> students had been occupying a campus building in solidarity with Palestine for three days when then-university President Tom Jackson decided to bring the demonstration to an end. But he didn\u2019t think the university could break the occupation, some two dozen members strong, on its own. In an email to the sheriff of the Humboldt Police Department on April 25, 2024, Jackson asked to tap a pool of policing cash clothed in the language of anarchist solidarity: the \u201claw enforcement mutual aid system.\u201d<\/p>\n In California, the Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Fund sets aside $25 million annually to let law enforcement agencies work across jurisdictions <\/strong>to fight natural disasters and other major emergencies. In a briefing obtained by The Intercept, acceptable LEMA use cases are listed as fires, storms, flooding, earthquakes, natural or man-made disasters, and \u201cother extra ordinary events requiring emergency law enforcement mutual aid on a case by case basis.\u201d <\/p>\n Leadership at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt \u2014 part of the California State University public school system \u2014 was able to tap these funds to bring outside law enforcement onto campus, The Intercept found in an investigative series on the university playbook for crushing pro-Palestine protests. Among more than 20,000 pages of documentation The Intercept obtained via public records requests, email after email from April and May 2024 show chiefs of police and administrators in California\u2019s public universities asking outside law enforcement agencies to enter their campuses and clear encampments.<\/p>\n As \u201cGaza solidarity\u201d encampments<\/a> popped up across college campuses <\/a>in April and May 2024, Jodi Lopez, staff services manager at California\u2019s Office of Emergency Services, informed the leadership of at least 30 public universities \u2014 <\/strong>including Cal Poly Humboldt \u2014 that if they were to require mutual aid assistance, LEMA would be available to reimburse their expenses, attaching a flyer that detailed eligible costs.<\/p>\n Cal Poly Humboldt students first entered and staged a peaceful sit-in at Siemens Hall on April 22. According to the documents obtained by The Intercept, leadership at the university was promptly in contact with local police departments about bringing the demonstration to an end. That day, police in riot gear attempted to enter the building and clear out the protesters, but students held them off. In an incident that would go viral<\/a> on social media, a student could be seen on surveillance footage hitting officers on their helmets with an empty plastic water jug. The cops eventually withdrew from the building, marking the start of what would turn into an eight-day occupation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Enlisting the help of Humboldt County\u2019s Office of Emergency Services, the Eureka Police Department, and the University of California Police Department, Jackson\u2019s email on April 25 requested assistance with \u201cReestablish[ing] control of university buildings and other property\u201d and \u201celiminating the threat of domestic violent extremism and criminal behavior\u201d on the part of the students \u2014 setting into motion the plan with which the cops ultimately cleared the hall. Ryan Derby, then head of the county OES, added in his mutual aid request that Cal Poly Humboldt would require the assistance of a total of 250 law enforcement officers, with \u201cpersonnel for entry team trained in tactical room clearing and arrest and control.\u201d<\/p>\n \n