Anti-War Action Network: Don’t Charge Rick Toledo! Protesting for Palestine is Not a Crime!

The Anti War Action Network is a grassroots national network of anti-war groups across the United States including the Humboldt Anti War Committee.  Rick Toledo is a member of the Humboldt Anti War Committee and we proudly defend his right to protest for Palestine!

In the middle of the night, on March 6, California Polytechnic Humboldt University police officers raided the home of Rick Toledo, nearly breaking down his door, and took him into custody without bail. Though he has not been charged at this time, he is facing four counts of serious felony charges: false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit a crime, assault, and battery. These charges carry up to 14 years in state prison combined. The Attorney General of California himself has signed off on a complaint against Toledo, filed by the University. Just days before, Toledo had been suspended and fired from his university teaching job. His first court appearance is scheduled for April 20, 2026.

These rotten attacks and attempts to expel him from school and to throw him into jail stem from a one-day building occupation for Palestine done by students on Feb 27. Aside from calling for the university to divest from Israeli bonds, they also called for sanctuary policies to keep ICE off campus and for striking workers to get raises. Toledo supported this building occupation and the protesting students, and in our eyes, he did nothing wrong. He deserves not only support from students, workers, and faculty all across Cal Poly Humboldt, but from progressives and people of conscience all over the country.

Students at California Polytechnic Humboldt University were a part of an inspiring wave of campus activism for Palestine. In 2024, during the spring encampment movement for Gaza, students took Siemens Hall in the name of divestment and held it for 9 days. Millions across the world watched videos of these students courageously standing up for Gaza, in the face of brutal police repression. Now the University and the state of California have decided they want someone to pay for this heroic moment, and their target of choice is Toledo. In our opinion, this is the real reason underlying the targeting and unleashing of state repression on Toledo, for a simple campus protest.

The Anti War Action Network condemns this arrest, the University crackdown, and now the threat of criminal charges. This is an attack on the right to speak about Palestine and on the right for protest for Palestine.

-March 23, 2026