We’re coming up on the two year anniversary of a tragedy which is near-unprecedented in my lifetime.
On April 30, 2024 large groups of masked men consisting of right-wing fascists who align themselves with the Israeli government, entered UCLA’s campus and brutalized a pro-Palestine encampment. The encampment had come together just five days prior, in a protest against Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.
I am Jewish, my grandparents were Orthodox and I come from a religious family. I did not know anyone like this growing up.
To see these psychopaths brutalizing a group of students, just because they didn’t like them makes me sick. The truth is, I hate them on a deep, personal level.
In the days which followed, a group of us, many of whom worked on identifying the January 6 attackers, put together a new research group and began to identify members of the UCLA mob. We established some basic rules at the beginning that we would share information, but no one could tell anyone else what to do with that information once we had it.
Eventually, those names made their way to the media - CNN did an outstanding investigation which directly led to the arrest of Edan On, an 18-year-old man who donned a Michael Myers-style Halloween mask as he terrorized the students. Take a look at this video taken by journalist Jack Ross that night. It’s one of the most harrowing examples of an out-of-control mob I’ve ever seen.
Read Permanent Record’s ongoing investigation into the UCLA mob attack.
I’ve spent the last couple weeks writing various versions of this piece, but none have really captured what I’ve wanted to say. On April 30, a great evil took place and justice has still not been done. Permanent Record will continue to investigate the circumstances behind the attack.