As I crowded in among the dozens of cameras and reporters at a
press conference that preceded Friday’s protest against
UCPD’s repeated use of a Taser on a student in Powell
Library, I found that one of the more fascinating aspects of the
media frenzy was not just the story itself, but the direction in
which reporters were pushing for it to go.
As both local and national reporters swooped in on the handful
of UCLA students leading the protest, they repeatedly echoed
questions of race that were brought up by Mostafa
Tabatabainejad’s lawyer, Stephen Yagman.
The Taser usage and video footage seems like enough of a story
in itself. Only further investigation will reveal whether the
repeated use, allegedly after the student was already handcuffed,
will qualify as police brutality and excessive use of force ““
though it is clear that such a judgment has already been rendered
in the minds of many UCLA students.
But a large portion of the interest shown by media at the
protest centered on the issue of race. The students involved, who
ranged from representatives of USAC to the presidents of the Muslim
Student Association and Amnesty International at UCLA, were careful
to avoid giving merit to the claims of racial profiling ““ and
commendably so.
Instead, they steered the debate away from such speculation,
only mentioning religion when clarifying that Tabatabainejad is not
Muslim, but Baha’i.
Protest organizer Combiz Abdolrahimi said the race or religion
of Tabatabainejad was not “important or relevant” to
their purposes in protesting.
“We are calling for an independent investigation … that
voices safety concerns of students,” Abdolrahimi said.
But Yagman told the Daily Bruin that Tabatabainejad did not show
his BruinCard because he believed he was being singled out in an
incident of racial profiling. To his knowledge, Tabatabainejad was
the only person who was asked to show ID, he said.
However, while several witnesses have confirmed that they were
not asked to show identification, doing a random check for
identification is routine.
The Community Service Officer had been doing the check for about
five to 10 minutes prior to the incident, said David Remesnitsky,
who was in Powell’s CLICC lab at the time of the
incident.
Though they weren’t consistently checking through that
period of time, Tabatabainejad was not the only one who was checked
for identification, he added.
Moreover, Yagman’s statement implies that the
responsibility for such racial profiling would lie with those who
were checking BruinCards: UCLA students acting in their capacity as
CSOs.
I decided to ask Sabiha Ameen, president of MSA, if she has
experienced racial profiling within the UCLA community.
Ameen said she hasn’t experienced significant racial
profiling at UCLA, adding that questions regarding her religion or
choice to wear a head scarf usually come out of “ignorance
rather than racism.”
Indeed, any personal experience with a tense environment
regarding race or incidents of racial profiling have occurred
outside of UCLA, she said.
Though large-scale racial incidents seem relatively rare at
UCLA, the concept that the incident was racially motivated seems to
be a quick sell. The idea has even reached the Iranian government,
who issued a statement regarding the “quite normal”
violations of minorities’ rights by American police.
But determining the extent to which excessive force was used
will be a long, complex process, and any question of racial
profiling will be even more so.
E-mail Mishory at jmishory@media.ucla.edu.