On May 15, 2024, Dr. Tiffany Willoughby-Herard of UC Irvine was violently arrested at a lawful protest in support of Gaza on campus. More information about her case is below. You can sign a Letter of Support for Professor Willoughby-Herard here, and view other support letters here.
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Video: Prof. Willoughby-Herard speaks from 16:31-22:40
The Minority Scholars Committee heartily congratulates Professor Tiffany Willoughby-Herard as the 2024 Richard A. Yarborough award recipient. For the past decade, Dr. Willoughby-Herard’s impact has been profoundly marked in International and Black Studies. A global reputation and extensive publishing record, she served as one of the few junior scholars to preside as President over the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS) from 2021-23. Her nominators passionately testified about the effect of her teaching and mentorship and how her “refusal to abstract her intellectual production from the material conditions that shape our world works to inspire marginalized populations to build and dream towards new forms of living.” As evidence of this, Dr. Willoughby-Herard made national and international headlines for her support of the Pro-Palestinian student encampment at USC-Irvine, calling for the university to model the true ideals of democracy. We commend this example of personal courage and standing with one’s students as an expression of academic freedom.
PRESS RELEASE from Advocates for Professor Willoughby-Herard (link to original document here)
Thousands Demand OC DA’s Office Drop Racially Motivated Charges against Pro-Palestine, Anti-Genocide Protesters at UCI
On Wednesday October 16th, Dr. Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Associate Professor of Global and International Studies at University of California, Irvine and an internationally recognized scholar, attended an arraignment hearing for herself and nine other faculty, students, and community members who are currently facing criminal charges following the police raid of UC Irvine’s Palestine Solidarity Encampment. On May 15th, 2024, protesters at a lawful assembly at UCI were corralled, beaten, stomped on, and arrested by hundreds of militarized riot police from over twenty law enforcement agencies invited to campus by Chancellor Howard Gillman. The campus was encircled by officers who received numerous false reports from the university that 200 people had taken over a building. Only hours after the riot police had arrested, detained, and beaten protesters did the university send out an announcement correcting its own false reports. Video of Dr. Willoughby-Herard’s violent arrest circulated around the world in the wake of these events. Now she and dozens of UCI protesters are facing criminal charges.
Of those arrested, Dr. Willoughby-Herard faces the most severe criminal punishment, with charges including “resisting arrest” and “resisting a peace officer with the threat of violence.” A letter in support of Dr. Willoughby-Herard signed by more than 8,000 concerned people, scholars and students, from universities around the world was sent to the Orange County district attorney and to UC Irvine’s Chancellor Howard Gillman. The letter demands that the DA drop all criminal charges against Dr. Willoughby-Herard and each of the forty-eight students, faculty, staff, and community members who were also charged. It also explains the history of people of conscience standing in solidarity against genocide and the unique role of community members supporting student leadership.
“UCI’s encampment was a student-led teaching and learning experience that the administration responded to with fear and violence,” stated Dr. Willoughby-Herard.
“This is like fearing the mission of the university itself. Without these courageous protesters demanding divestment from genocide, our universities risk being reduced to money launderers for industries that pollute the air, water, soil and our bodies in the U.S, and produce interminable graveyards in Palestine. We cannot stand by and watch our society’s precious resources be spent on militarism and genocide. And we will not accept being called criminals for saying so aloud and in public.”
While Dr. Willoughby-Herard and nine other protesters were in court, the district attorney announced on Twitter that he was charging 39 other protesters, listing their names, location, and arraignment dates publicly. The publicity from the DA’s decision to press charges on September 18th against the initial 10 protesters led to an incident of “doxxing” at UCI, as arrested students, faculty, and staff had their names, photographs and personal information displayed on a massive mobile digital billboard that was allowed to remain on campus for nearly four hours on September 26th, the first day of the school year. Dr. Willoughby-Herard was among those targeted, using anti-democratic tactics that go back to the 1980s.
The open letter of support for Dr. Willoughby-Herard notes that criminal legal charges against protesters threaten “the safety and well-being of scholars like Dr. Willoughby-Herard who have been targeted by far-right political groups with rape and death threats.” Since the arrest on May 15th, Dr. Willoughby-Herard has received threats against her life and family as well as calls for her to be fired. The letter of support also describes the charges against Dr. Willoughby-Herard as “just one example of the disproportionate criminalization of Black people…across the U.S.” A previous petition protesting the charges circulated by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) received more than 3,000 signatures.
Dr. Cornel West, an internationally-recognized public intellectual, described Dr. Willoughby-Herard and the others arrested as having “deep love in their hearts and a profound commitment to justice,” as they “called for an end to Israel’s crimes of genocide against Palestinians and their university’s investment in death and destruction. Their protest, their courage, and their love and commitment to not only one another, but to people suffering in Gaza, stand as a testament to the best our nation has to offer. They shouldn’t be facing prosecution,” Dr. West explained, “they should be lifted up, embraced, and put forth as models for what it means to be a person of conscience in our society.”
“The arrest and treatment of Dr. Willoughby-Herard, who put herself on the line to protect her students and to stand up against a genocide being funded by UC investments and carried out using military and surveillance technology developed on UC campuses shows how increased campus securitization impacts minoritized community members,” said Annie McClanahan, Associate Professor and Chair of the Irvine Faculty Association.
Thomas Harvey, a civil rights attorney representing Dr. Willoughby-Herard, noted that “UCI’s overreaction to anti-genocide campus protests and its deployment of more than 20 police forces on campus led directly to the criminal charges against Dr. Willoughby-Herard. Forty-eight other people are facing criminal charges in Orange County alone for exercising their constitutional rights on May 15, 2024.”
Added to this Harvey notes, “While these charges should be dropped immediately, this highlights the need for lawyers to join the fight against this naked attempt to stifle dissent. Here, across the state, and on campuses everywhere, we need lawyers to step up and help protesters as they take a principled stand against genocide and the universities and other business profiting from it.”
Press Contacts:
Justine Pryce: Justine.pryce@proton.me
Annie McClanahan: anniejmcclanahan@gmail.com