OJ Igor?

As blog readers will know, we had some fun with the pursuit of "Igor," our stand-in for the club-wielding guys of April 30th.* Now at least one Igor has been arrested. Maybe there will be others. But that arrest leaves open the question of why there weren't arrests at the time when the police finally arrived. Why wasn't Igor arrested then?

Whatever the answer is to that question, there are now some possibilities. One is that Igor's defense counsel will try simply to get his client off with the lightest possible sentence, and do it quietly and out of the limelight. 

But there is also the possibiity - particularly if someone wants to pay for it - of an OJ-type trial in which the simple issue of guilt or innocence is lost amidst a larger "context." (There's that word again!) There could be questions about selective prosecution. There is video evidence of encampment residents engaging in violent conduct before the April 30 clash.** Were any protesters who engaged in such conduct arrested? If not, why not? And there is the larger element that the encampment was declared to be an unlawful assembly. Why were UCLA police not around to intervene? Why didn't the security guards who were around intervene? Who gave orders for what? The UCLA police chief was "suspended," which can be viewed as a tacit admission by UCLA that there was a problem in campus policing. If Igor claims self-defense, what evidence is there against that claim?

One could imagine testimony being required from the soon-to-retire chancellor and other UCLA officials. Since the chancellor - in his congressional testimony - alluded to directives regarding avoiding a police presence coming from UCOP, even President Drake could become involved. 

The defense would go something like, "If UCLA's security wasn't fit, you must acquit."

As in the OJ case, the question of exactly who is on trial could become murky. This case is the stuff that "trials of the century" can be made of - if someone wants to do it. And there is leverage for the defense embedded in that option. It's likely that the legal folks at UCLA and UC are aware of the possibilities. And it's likely that the "strategic communication" folks are also aware.

But then again, maybe it will all go away in a quiet courtroom at some future date with no one paying much attention and no official embarrassment. The attention span of social media is limited to the events de jour. 

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/05/whodunit-maybe-it-was-igor-part-3.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/05/whodunit-maybe-it-was-igor-part-2.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/05/whodunit-maybe-it-was-igor.html.

**See the opening segment of:

https://ia600307.us.archive.org/9/items/newsom-4-3-24-snow-survey/UCLA%20Encampment%20Before%20April%2030.mp4. [Video clips from before April 30.]

Someone comes out of the encampment and attacks a counterprotester on April 28. Security guards watch but don't intervene. And there are other such instances.