Editorial
Abuse Demands Action

"Stand up or you’ll get tased again.” To anyone with a even a limited knowledge of physiology or criminal procedure, this would present something of a contradiction. But for the UCLA Police Department last Tuesday, it was exactly how a few officers chose to perform their duty.

There is no excusing the excessive force used against 23-year-old senior Mostafa Tabatabainejad, who turned out to be a UCLA student. A remarkably clear YouTube video does not reveal the initial circumstances of the encounter between authorities and the student, but it is more than enough to reveal an abuse of power.

The officers’ actions represent a startling ignorance of Los Angeles racial and judicial history. In a city with a sordid record of police brutality against minorities, the officers should have been aware that their actions would carry reverberate far beyond the library halls.

This does not mean that police officers, UCLA or otherwise, should treat minority students differently than other students. But it does mean that the department and the university should recognize a public relations nightmare when it’s staring them in the face.

Despite this evidence stacked against the officers, calling for them to be fired immediately goes too far. They deserve a hearing, and the announcement of an independent investigation of the incident should put activists at greater ease.

Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams announced the independent review Friday, to go along with the department’s own investigation. The appointment of Merrick Bobb, who led the investigion of the 1992 Rodney King beating, made it clear that the independent review will hardly be a rubber stamp.

But no commission can remove the screams etched in UCLA students’ collective memories. At this point, Abrams’ number-one priority must be to re-establish trust of campus police officers among the UCLA student community. Setting up an independent review of the incident is a good start, but Abrams can’t mince words when it comes to the officers’ act after the clash began.

Not doing so will make students feel alienated from the university administration and will make the UCLA Police Department unable to do their job effectively. Students and administrators alike have to act now on this issue, and they cannot continue to rely on YouTube to do their jobs for them.

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