LAPD charges against fraternities unwarranted
By Christopher Filippi
This is funny. Why am I spending time writing a letter to a
newspaper when I have 16 units, a job and a comfortable amount of
beer in my fridge? Surely I should be contemplating why I spent
more than 80 bucks on a required mechanical engineering textbook
that has no color pictures. But alas, I happened to gaze at a few
articles in today’s Bruin, and was a tad too infuriated to do
nothing.
In the immortal words of Pinhead from Hellraiser III … "Shall
we begin?"
As I grabbed Tuesday’s Daily Bruin from its little stand I
noticed the front-page headline, "LAPD to file suit against UCLA
fraternities." WHAT? Since when do public servants decide it’s a
good idea to harass the people they’re supposed to protect? Oh, I
forgot, that’s the LAPD’s job: protect people from themselves.
After all, Big Brother surely knows what’s best for us, right?
I salute Interfraternity Council President Mike Chao for his
response to this outrageous situation. Not only should the LAPD
have contacted the Interfraternity Council, but they shouldn’t
assume fraternities are a subculture completely dissociated from
"other" students. Good work, Mike.
Furthermore, LAPD Capt. Robert Kruth must have been dropped a
lot as a child. Shut down fraternities because "they’re a nuisance
to the community"? Oh yes, I forgot only fraternity members were
present at last Monday’s festivities.
And the "continuing problem" Kruth refers to  what the
hell is he talking about? Unless registration fees are quadrupled
overnight, I don’t think we’re going to have that many more
assemblies in our neighboring village. If Westwood can shut down an
entire street all day for Farmers Market every week, could they
please give us one stinking night? Please, Westwood, could you show
a little slack to your major source of business?
Now we get to my second vexation with the April 11 Daily Bruin.
I read David Aguilar’s viewpoint, "Prop. 187 backers: remember
Monday" on the persecution of Latinos, African Americans and other
people of color by Proposition 187, and I would like to know how it
relates to Monday night.
If memory serves, Proposition 187 simply said, "If you ain’t a
citizen, you don’t necessarily get what a citizen gets." Similarly,
anti-affirmative action questions, "If we’re all created equal, why
do some get special benefits based on their race?" That’s
discrimination! These items should be inherently obvious. If you’re
not a member, you don’t get your free newsletter, and you don’t
learn the secret handshake. If you believe in equal rights, you got
to take the good with the bad. Now, how Proposition 187 would be
implemented is another story entirely, one with which I will not
bore you.
On last Monday night, tax-paying students were beat up and
harassed by the people they employ. Proposition 187 tried to
protect those same taxpayers from paying for something they
shouldn’t have to, like crummy cops.
I agree with Aguilar on several counts. Employing more police is
certainly not the answer (as the events Monday demonstrated), and
things like the border checkpoint on the I-5, where Latinos and
Chicanos are certainly messed with on a regular basis, are complete
jokes. Heck, I could be an illegal Italian immigrant and get
through … how would they know?
However, police fulfill a necessary function. As a subgroup of
our society, provided the power doesn’t go to their heads, they are
generally a good thing in moderation. And if Aguilar thinks that
all of society is out to get him, he should see a psychiatrist.
Every time I walk into Boelter Hall, I become a minority, but that
doesn’t mean my Asian instructor is gonna fail me because I’m
white.
Before Aguilar starts calling everyone a
racist-fascist-totalitarian-imperialist, let’s try pretending race
isn’t important and put people into office who feel the same
way.
Filippi is a junior mechanical engineering student.