Letters from the UC community
UCPD needs to better serve its community
While I do agree with David Lazar (“Beware of easy
knee-jerk reactions,” Nov. 17) that Mostafa Tabatabainejad
was uncooperative and even hostile, an unarmed civilian refusing to
leave a library hardly justifies use of force.
It is true that police officers face danger and we respect them
for their sacrifice.
On the other hand, we’re talking about the CLICC Lab.
It is brightly lit, public and no one can even use a computer
without a proper BOL account. It is not exactly the hardened street
corner Lazar makes it out to be.
University police need to be able to diffuse hostile situations
such as these without the use of force. Their biggest problem is
not one of ethics. It is a public relations issue.
The campus police’s authority is only as strong as the
community’s commitment to it.
UCPD needs to make it clear that it will protect and serve in
the most dignified manner befitting the community it services.
Minuk Kim
Class of 2003
CSOs obligated to put safety first
After reading of the altercation, I was instantly reminded of
the many frustrations I experienced as a student circulation
manager at Powell Library.
Seeing the video of the Taser incident in Powell reminded me of
the wonderful ability for video to place us as bystanders at an
event while providing an unclear picture of what really
happened.
As a former Powell student manager, fellow students would
regularly disregard the rules I was instructed to maintain.
It never occurred to them that my performance was being
evaluated by whether those rules ““ and the security of the
building ““ were being maintained.
Security at Powell is what it is because of past events. After
11 p.m., you have to have a valid BruinCard to be in the
building.
Community Service Officers are not asking the world of students.
If you refuse to obey them, they will be obligated to call the
police and remove you from the building ““ not because
you’re Iranian ““ but because you don’t have your
ID.
Welcome to the real world, kid.
Ryan Blocher
Class of 2003
Lazar’s commentary was off the mark
For those of us who exercise critical thinking, we see that
there are many inconsistencies between the official story of the
event and David Lazar’s story (“Beware of easy
knee-jerk reactions,” Nov. 17).
Taser guns were invented as substitutes for the use of lethal
force against a suspect who is clearly threatening the security of
an officer.
After Tabatabainejad was handcuffed, it would not have been hard
to carry him out.
What really bothered the officers is that Tabatabainejad’s
calls for help actually worked in getting students to stand up to
police officers.
We are a university community, which means we should be smart
enough to recognize that police officers sometimes make terrible
blunders.
What if this incident was a mistake by university police? That
is what we need to find out.
José I. Fusté
Ph.D. candidate, UCSD
Taser use was unfair and unwarranted
It is impossible to postulate, based on UCPD’s own
statements or the available video, any reasonable basis for the
Taser use in Powell.
There is no evidence that the student ““ who was ejected
for not complying with the “show us your papers!”
demand ““ was a threat.
Many people have begun to react negatively to the surveillance
society mind-set being foisted upon us in the name of “our
protection.”
The use of the Taser was unfair as Tabatabainejad had been
restrained.
I can’t help but wonder if the student’s Middle
Eastern ancestry was indeed a contributing factor in the UCPD
reaction.
Do you seriously believe university police would have been as
fast to Taser a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman who behaved in an
uncooperative fashion?
Many police agencies have become enamored with the Taser as a
control shortcut ““ even using it on children in some
well-documented situations.
As a UCLA alumna who remembers how authorities overreacted to
passive resistance in the 1970s, my advice to current students
would be to watch your backs.
Lauren Weinstein
UCLA Class of 1976
Letters from around the nation
Taser was used as a defensive tool
I am a former full-time law enforcement officer and campus
police officer.
As such, I have several points to make about the Taser incident
at UCLA.
First of all, the student was unruly and uncooperative.
“Get off me!” is not a response I will accept if I ask
for identification on a college campus.
It shouldn’t be an option to walk away from officers when
asked for proof that you belong on campus.
Also, Tasers are defensive weapons, not necessarily compliance
tools.
I was somewhat uncomfortable with the officers’ use of the
Taser. When faced with a subject who is restrained, but will not
get up and come along, I usually just grab their ear and go to the
car.
If that feels a little too strong at the time, I pick them up
and carry them or drag them.
I don’t beat them, pepper spray them, or use a Taser on
them because they are not a danger to me.
However, given their presence on the scene, the officers may
have decided that physically removing the student would have been
dangerous to bystanders, the student or the officers
themselves.
In addition, I would have told concerned bystanders to step away
from what was happening or face arrest. This tends to work better
than threatening them with a Taser.
Soon after retiring from my job as campus officer, a female
student was abducted from a parking lot, abused, and killed within
a mile of the campus.
Having identification is the first thing you must do as a
student.
The second is to not question when someone asks for it.
Leon A. Richard
Farmington, Maine
Powell never would have let this happen
After hearing about the Taser incident at Powell, I could only
wonder what L.C. Powell, whom the library is named after, might
have thought.
I had the great pleasure to sit under a tree at the University
of Arizona library school several times with this gentle, wise and
compassionate man.
I cannot help but think that if he had been there that night,
this whole thing might not have happened.
He probably would have asked the police to allow him to handle
it.
He probably would have talked with the student, maybe even
telling the student a story while walking him out.
Or, if he did not have the time, he would have somehow used his
beautiful spirit to convince the officers into allowing the student
to stay, taking him to his office and letting him use his
computer.
Somehow, the Tasers would have never been necessary.
May his spirit be remembered.
Carlos Humphreys
El Paso, Texas