It seems that after last week’s Tasering in Powell
Library, everyone has become an expert on police conduct.
Each student is ready to opine on whether or not a Taser
actually hurts that badly, or on whether Mostafa Tabatabainejad was
actively resisting the officers.
But in the midst of the debate, we’re missing the
point.
The conversation should not be about whether officers used
excessive force in this specific case, but rather about what kind
of police force we want to serve us.
Do we want one that blindly enforces rules, jumping to the use
of force without regard to situation or circumstances?
Or do we want a police force that prides itself on public
service with sound judgment and restraint?
I argue the latter. We should have a police force that works to
resolve conflicts not as gun-slinging (or Taser-toting) enforcers,
but rather as community partners who work with discretion to ensure
the safety, dignity and trust of our community.
Students present that night were horrified by the
officers’ conduct, and more than a few students, myself
included, have been left wondering if they’ll ever trust the
police again.
Los Angeles has seen this situation before.
The beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police Department
officers in 1991 escalated public rage against the police force
that eventually led to the L.A. riots.
In 1998, residents living under the purview of the LAPD’s
Rampart Area just west of downtown lost most of their confidence in
the department when allegations arose that officers had covered up
the brutal beating and asphyxiation of a gang member.
Now, it’s not like student groups are getting ready to
torch Murphy Hall. In fact, it’s laudable that they’ve
refrained, for the most part, from unleashing their militant
rhetoric and instead stuck with poise and restraint in the past
week.
But after the incident in Powell, as in Watts and MacArthur
Park, the resulting enmity between the community and its police
threatens to divide the two in a way that will threaten both the
ability of the police to do their job effectively and our
safety.
If university police does nothing to assuage the rage directed
at them by the UCLA community, they risk facing a distrustful
student body and more noncompliant students like Tabatabainejad who
view the police as an enemy and not a friend.
But it need not be. In the wake of the revelations of LAPD
brutality in the Rampart Area, the city commissioned an independent
review of LAPD policy that we can learn from today.
Beyond its technical recommendations, the review advocated a
change of culture. The LAPD was to be a department whose officers
took a problem-solving mind-set into the field instead of
hard-charging into situations as they had in the past.
An officer with such a mind-set would have come into Powell
Library looking to talk down an angry student and help him verify
his identity, without immediately resorting to confrontation.
Folks such as my colleague and archrival David Lazar have argued
that after the Tasering we should give the police the benefit of
the doubt in use-of-force controversies.
I say no.
The police are the only people in the country licensed to use
force. If there is ever a question that they’ve used that
license in a manner contrary to what their community expects, there
should be an immediate response to the community’s
demands.
Why have neighborhoods rioted over this point? Because to expect
anything less would be undemocratic.
Students will not feel safe until we know that every officer
licensed to use force has the ability and training to do so
judiciously.
UCPD needs to put on leave Officer Terrence Duren, who
discharged the Taser into Tabatabainejad, until his conduct that
night is officially and independently reviewed.
We should expect more of our police than just blind-rule
enforcement. Officers must solve problems rather than bluntly
neutralize them.
They must treat everyone, no matter who they are, with dignity
and respect. To expect anything less from the only people we allow
to use guns and Tasers on us would be simply absurd.
If you’re still wondering how to pronounce
Tabatabainejad, e-mail Reed at treed@media.ucla.edu. Send general
comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.