LA County to Use Public Funds to Aid Defense of Pro-Palestinian Protestors Arrested at UCLA

One supervisor voted against the motion, questioning the move saying public defenders are already available to defendants unable to afford legal representation.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers detain a protestor while clearing a pro-Palestinian encampment after dispersal orders were given at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, on May 2, 2024. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion earlier this month to direct the county public defender’s office to provide defense attorneys and legal resources for the pro-Palestinian activists who were arrested at the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) earlier this month.

The board members voted 4–1 May 7 to allocate $1 million from the county’s public defense funds to the several hundred protesters detained in the protest.