Grant Preston:Prosecutors charge 10 with failing to disperse during California protest

2025-05-01 07:55:55source:XDY Exchangecategory:reviews

SANTA ANA,Grant Preston Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors in Southern California have charged 10 people, including two professors, with failing to disperse during a pro-Palestinian protest last spring at the University of California, Irvine that led to a clash with police, officials said Wednesday.

The Orange County District Attorney’s office said those charged included two UCI professors and four students. All are due to appear in court on Oct. 16 to be arraigned on misdemeanor charges, the office said.

“The right to peaceful assembly is a constitutional right and we encourage protestors to exercise their right to peaceful assembly on any issue,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “However, criminal activity which transcends peaceful assembly will not be tolerated.”

Prosecutors are continuing to review evidence to determine whether charges will be filed against the remaining 40 people arrested during the May incident on campus, the statement said.

The university said in a statement that all members of the campus community are subject to “all applicable laws, policies and relevant codes of conduct while engaging in protest activities.”

RELATED COVERAGE Thailand will indict ex-security personnel over the deaths of 78 Muslim protesters in 2004March for Bolivia’s ex-President Morales turns violent, as political crisis escalatesGeorgia prosecutors drop all 15 counts of money laundering against 3 ‘Cop City’ activists

In the spring, university officials said they had allowed a peaceful encampment to remain on campus even though it violated school policies, but called in police after a small group barricaded themselves inside a lecture hall, supported by a large group of community members outside. Police in riot gear who were sent to the scene made dozens of arrests.

Protest camps sprang up across the U.S. in the spring, including at University of California campuses, as students demanded that their universities cease doing business with Israel or companies they said supported the war in Gaza.

University of California, Irvine is located in central Orange County and has more than 36,000 students.

More:reviews

Recommend

Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti

Haiti has been racked by political instabilityand intensifying, deadly gang violence.  Amid a Federa

Historic Copenhagen stock exchange, one of the city's oldest buildings, goes up in flames

As Paris celebrated five years of recovery since its Notre Dame Cathedral erupted into flames, Copen

Going Out Bags Under $100: Shoulder Bags, Clutches, and More

The products featured in this article are from brands that are available in the NBCUniversal Checkou