George Floyd protests: LA police use Jackie Robinson Stadium as jail

UCLA professors had petitioned against university's 'collaboration' with LAPD over stadium's use

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has been criticised after it detained Black Lives Matter protesters inside the Jackie Robinson stadium, named after the first black Major League Baseball player.

LAPD police on Monday night used the stadium, owned by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to temporarily house people detained during protests and demonstrations.

In a statement, UCLA condemned the LAPD’s decision to use it’s stadium as a “field jail” and said it had not been asked for permission.

“We’re troubled by accounts of Jackie Robinson stadium being used as a ‘field jail’. This was done without UCLA’s knowledge or permission,” read the statement.

UCLA added: “As lessee of the stadium, we informed local agencies that UCLA will NOT grant permission should there be a request like this in the future.”

The LAPD accepted the complaint on Wednesday and said it would no longer use the baseball stadium to house arrested protesters, said NBC News.

Los Angeles and cities across the US have now seen demonstrations against the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, for more than a week.

Whilst it is not clear how many people were detained inside the Jackie Robinson stadium on Monday night, police have arrested about 2,700 people in Los Angeles over George Floyd protests.

UCLA staff had written to the university’s leadership team on Tuesday with concerns about the police department’s use of the stadium to hold protesters.

The professors said they were concerned about “these events and the matter of UCLA collaboration with LAPD and other police forces.”

The letter added that “Testimony from arrested protesters is chilling”, after the LAPD were alleged to have crowded people onto buses in violation of social distancing necessitated during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The cruel irony that this took place at a location used as a COVID-19 testing site is not lost on those arrested or on us,” added the professors.