The arrests of two pro-Palestine protestors nearly two months ago is just now culminating in a Cal Poly Humboldt student-led backlash. 

Details are sparse. The university has declined to share much about the arrests, but what they will say is that two people were arrested for conspiracy, wearing a mask while committing a crime and vandalism. 

The university’s public records office denied the Outpost‘s request for the police report. 

Raymund Evans was arrested by UPD on Jan. 30, and Maggie Rasch by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office a week later, on Feb. 6. (It’s unclear if Raymund’s name is spelled with a “u” or with an “o”. Arrest records show his name spelled as “Raymund,” but others have used “Raymond.”)

Their arrests came eight days after a pro-Palestine, anti-Trump Jan. 21 protest in Arcata whose participants wound up marching to campus, spraying graffiti on some buildings and breaking several windows. UPD has not specified what Rasch and Evans did to warrant their arrests, though the Friends of Raymond and Maggie claim that UPD’s main evidence against them was seeing Evans loading protest signs and a drum into his truck after the Jan. 21 protest. 

At a University Senate meeting held yesterday with over 70 people in attendance, CPH Interim President Michael Spagna specified that neither Evans nor Rasch were students. Spagna also said vandalism was the reason they were arrested, and not free-speech related reasons. According to Spagna there have been over 20 protests this academic year where no one was arrested.

“The University not only supports freedom of speech — regardless of the content of that speech — but we protect it and encourage all voices to be heard,” reads a university statement. “… In the case of the Jan. 21 event, the two individuals were arrested for the alleged criminal activity on campus, not because they were engaged in free speech. Beyond that, we cannot comment further on an ongoing investigation.”

Supporters see the matter differently.

“This blatant political intimidation is part of a long pattern of suppressing dissent and protest by the Cal Poly administration and their police,” reads a press statement released by Friends of Raymond and Maggie. “Last year they found that smashing open the heads of unarmed protesters with batons caused too much negative publicity, and so they have shifted tactics. Instead they choose to quietly target individual activists with absurd and inflated charges, hoping it will intimidate dissidents and critics of the University while attracting far less negative attention.”

Many speakers at yesterday’s senate meeting, most of them students, agreed. Several drew comparisons to President Trump’s attempted deportation over the weekend of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student and pro-Palestine activist. 

Many are instructing their friends to call the DA’s office and get the charges dropped. 

Neither Raymund Evans or Maggie Rasch could be reached for comment. As of publication, Friends of Raymond and Maggie have not responded to a request for comment.