Irvine Mayor Farrah N. Khan wants it to be known that she does not approve of the quick work the joint task force of Orange County Police Officers performed in quelling Wednesday’s pro-Hamas unrest at the University of California Irvine campus. The protestors took over the Physical Science Lecture Hall as well as the plaza area. Officers in riot gear, made up of 10 law enforcement agencies (including Irvine and Newport Beach), quickly staged and converged in response to a campus alert that the protest had escalated. Khan decided to chime in on this campus alert and to excoriate the police’s show of force, as well as pontificate about freedom of speech… or something.
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It’s a shame that peaceful free speech protests are always responded to with violence. Taking space on campus or in a building is not a threat to anyone. UCI leadership must do everything they can to avoid creating a violent scenario here. These are your students w/ zero weapons.
So, Khan would rather have had it escalate to someone being bludgeoned, like the young Iranian Jew at the pro-Hamas protests at UCLA. Or seen journalists held hostage and students harassed because they did not bend to pro-Hamas crowds’ aims? In 2021, when soon-to-be former Rep. Katie Porter (D-47) sent texts to Khan trashing the Irvine cops for their arrest of her domestic partner because he assaulted a protestor at one of Porter’s town halls, Khan said nothing to defend the Irvine PD. This is the same woman who, after keeping the Mayor’s chair warm for two terms, is now running for Orange County Board of Supervisors , a role that would give her even more power over police oversight.
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Orange County residents should be afraid. Very afraid.
Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill stepped into Khan’s thread and put her in her place. Newport Beach recently made the news when a resident stood their ground with a firearm against would-be intruders. One intruder was permanently ventilated, the other ended up hospitalized. O’Neill stood with the homeowner and praised how his city’s law enforcement handled the situation, while warning the criminals that if you break the law, this is what happens.
This is what leadership looks like.
O’Neill showed it once again by highlighting the dangerous work police officers do in these situations and emphasizing that they should be praised and supported, not accused of escalating violence.
Police officers from Newport Beach are currently in Irvine providing assistance at the request of a mutual aid call. Your careless wording makes it appear that you are preemptively accusing our officers, and officers from the many law enforcement agencies who responded, of violence. If that’s what you meant, then your message is beneath the office of Mayor. If it is not, then clarify immediately.
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This post was issued on Wednesday afternoon, and O’Neill responded on Thursday. As of this writing, the Mayor of Irvine’s X feed has no new posts about the UC Irvine protests or Khan’s prior statement. It appears that Khan did not misspeak and has no desire to clarify. What one can assume is that Khan agrees with the pro-Hamas protestors and that her views are representative of the leftist indoctrination resident on UC campuses like Irvine and UCLA. She certainly does not represent the values of Orange County law enforcement or the majority of its residents. The X post from Wednesday has not been deleted.
In a report about the aftermath of the UC Irvine protests, the chancellor made this statement:
“I was prepared to allow a peaceful encampment to exist on the campus without resorting to police intervention, even though the encampment violated our policies and the existence of the encampment was a matter of great distress to other members of our community.
“And so after weeks when the encampers assured our community that they were committed to maintaining a peaceful and nondisruptive encampment, it was terrible to see that they would dramatically alter the situation in a way that was a direct assault on the rights of other students and the university mission.”
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No statement from Khan is mentioned.
This is what cowardice looks like. Orange County residents would be wise not to give her another office.