George Floyd Protests In LA: Police Used UCLA Stadium To Hold Detainees Without Permission

The Los Angeles Police Department has come under fire for their use of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium as a temporary “field jail” to hold arrested protestors. The department did so on Monday without seeking the university’s permission, NBC News reports.

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

Officer Mike Lopez confirmed the department’s use of the stadium and also stated that they are no longing utilizing it. No mention was made of how many detainees were held at the stadium.

L.A. law enforcement has so far arrested roughly 2,700 protestors.

“Last evening, UCLA students were arrested for engaging in the constitutionally protected right to peacefully protest against racial injustice, which is pervasive in American policing,” UCLA urban planning professor Ananya Roy said in a statement decrying the situation. “They were detained and processed at a stadium on their own campus named after Jackie Robinson, an icon of the long and unfinished struggle for Black freedom.”

Roy’s statement was co-signed by 59 other members of the UCLA faculty.

Home to the UCLA Bruins baseball team, the 1,250-seat Jackie Robinson Stadium is located on land leased by the school on Veterans Affairs land. As NBC News notes, the land is not incorporated in Los Angles County and is therefore beyond the city’s jurisdiction.