To the editor: While I agree that vandalism is a crime and should be charged as such, the law is being wielded disproportionately against pro-Palestinian activists (“Felony charges for pro-Palestinian Stanford students? Trump will love this,” April 10). Save for a single protester charged with assault with a deadly weapon, we have not seen felony assault or attempted murder charges levied against the pro-Israel activists who violently attacked pro-Palestinian UCLA students, faculty and staff in 2024, nor have universities like Stanford, UCLA or USC faced civil rights charges for their efforts to deny pro-Palestinians their right to speak and to challenge pro-Israel depictions of the war in Gaza. Property crimes are serious, but violence against persons and egregious limitations on free-speech rights are worse.
Justice needs to be blind and deaf, as [columnist Anita] Chabria says, but it needs to be prioritized and proportionate. Santa Clara County Dist. Atty. Jeff Rosen says he wants the punishment to fit the crime, but shouldn’t he and Los Angeles-area prosecutors be focusing on more serious crimes?
Rachel Howes, Northridge
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To the editor: A long time ago when I was a student in the 1960s, protests were quite common. Many of the causes I agreed with, but one thing I didn’t was vandalizing school property. That said, I feel that filing felony charges against pro-Palestinian students is overkill designed primarily to intimidate. Suppressing discontent this way won’t make it go away; it just proves the point for the people that the authorities are trying to silence.
Martin Usher, Thousand Oaks
