UTA Vice Chairman & UC Regent Jay Sures’ Home Vandalized In Pro-Palestinian Protest

(Update with UC statement) UTA Vice Chairman Jay Sures, who is also a UC regent and outspoken supporter of Israel, saw his Brentwood home vandalized by protesters who massed in front of his house early this morning. The protesters left bloody handprints on the door of his garage, among other indignities, and had to be dispersed by police.

Per Daily Bruin student journos Alexandra Crosnoe and Dylan Winward, the protest was organized by Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA, and they pegged the number of protesters at 50. All of them wore masks and scattered caution tape and fliers in his front yard. Sures said he is cooperating with authorities. This is the first time such a disturbance has happened at his home, and he feels the protesters crossed the line.

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“It’s one thing to peacefully protest, but to go to an administrator or a regent’s house to violate the hundred-foot rule, which is what it is in Los Angeles, to disturb the entire neighborhood by pounding on drums, to surround my wife’s car and prevent her from free movement, and to put up signs, threatening my family and my life and vandalize the house, that is a big escalation.”

Asked why he believes he and his home were targeted like this for the first time, Sures told Deadline: “I’m Jewish. There are 18 regents, and I’ve been outspoken; you can Google me about what I’ve written, what I’ve done in the world of the University of California. I’ve been pretty outspoken about the cause, about protecting our Jewish students, and they don’t like it. So they do this to try to intimidate you to, so you back off them. It’s all intimidation.”

He believes his home was targeted because of his strongly worded response to the UC system’s Board of Regents, its chancellors and its president protesting what he termed a “appalling and repugnant” letter from the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council to the regents. In that missive in fall 2023, Sures asserted that the letter “is rife with falsehoods about Israel and seeks to legitimize and defend the horrific savagery of the Hamas massacre of October 7.”

Today’s action comes six months after the the UC regents voted to ban political statements from university homepages. Sures had been the main driver behind the policy, which is broad but has attracted scrutiny for its impact on the expression of pro-Palestinian views.

“He has attempted to intimidate faculty and students who spoke out against the genocide in Gaza, but we refuse to stay silent,” Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA wrote on IG Wednesday.

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Today’s protesters were masked, but if police can identify them, he will press charges, Sures said.

“They’ve asked for all the security camera footage, and they’re going to go back and look on the footage to see,” he said. “Everybody was masked. So they’re going to see if they can identify folks. And yeah, I mean, if we can identify folks, we’re definitely going to press charges.”

According to a LAPD report, officers were called to Sures’ Brentwood residence at 6:15 am PT in response “to a large group, blocking the street and driveway.” They encountered about 50 masked protesters “banging on drums, making loud noises and causing disturbance,” a law enforcement official told Deadline. Due to the size of the crowd and the vandalism of Sures’ garage, additional units were requested by the initial officers on the scene.

“Our job was to keep the peace,” an LAPD source told Deadline this afternoon. “There were no arrests.” After the protesters left, a small posse of police remained well into the rest of the morning.

UCLA PD officers also were at the Sures’ residence, and they were the ones who handled the vandalism of the bloody hands and fliers plastered on the garage door, we’ve learned.

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It should be noted that Sures’ garage is several feet on his property, so whoever placed the fliers and handprints on the door of the structure was trespassing. Tape was strung around the front of the property.

(Update: Feb 6, 1:35 pm PT: Yesterday, the private residence of UC Regent Jay Sures was vandalized, and his family and neighbors were harassed,” a UC spokesperson told Deadline Thursday. “The University is supporting local law enforcement who are investigating this incident. The University strongly supports freedom of speech and the rights of our community members to participate in nonviolent protests, and we condemn all crimes and harassment committed against members of our UC community. We will continue doing everything possible to create a safe and welcoming university community for all.“)

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