Patrick Range McDonaldThis morning, a “suspicious device” was found in the loading dock area of Covel Commons, a student dining facility, on the UCLA campus in Westwood, City News Service reports.
UCLA police evacuated Covel Commons, with the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad called in. The device was removed from the loading dock, but it's not clear yet if the object was a bomb or not.
The facility was declared safe around 1:30 p.m.
UCLA has a recent history of bomb scares, which L.A. Weekly examined in the 2007 feature story titled “Monkey Madness at UCLA.”
In the past, violent, underground animal rights activists have targeted UCLA medical researchers at their homes for performing tests on living animals.
No one has been killed so far, and sometimes the homemade bombs have not gone off.
Today's incident could be related, but usually the activists, who are considered among the most violent in the country, target people or property that has a connection to animal testing.
UCLA has been dealing with this kind of “domestic terrorism,” as the LAPD describes it, for more than three years, but there have been few, if any, arrests.
Even Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's sister, Deborah Villar, has been the victim of eco-terrorists, with her car and home vandalized by them.
Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.
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