Cal Poly Humboldt students had been occupying a campus building in solidarity with Palestine for three days when then-university President Tom Jackson decided to bring the demonstration to an end. But he didn’t think the university could break the occupation, some two dozen members strong, on its own. In an email to the sheriff of the Humboldt Police Department on April 25, 2024, Jackson asked to tap a pool of policing cash clothed in the language of anarchist solidarity: the “law enforcement mutual aid system.”

In California, the Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Fund sets aside $25 million annually to let law enforcement agencies work across jurisdictions to fight natural disasters and other major emergencies. In a briefing obtained by The Intercept, acceptable LEMA use cases are listed as

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