Today, one of the abusive officers who was involved in last week’s attack on Mostafa Tabatabainejad was named officially. Terrence Duren has been with UCLA since 1988 and hopefully he won’t be with the department in 2007. Mr. Duren is no stranger to investigations. He was the subject of an investigation three years ago for shooting a homeless man in Kerckhoff Hall. It does not stop there either. He was also investigated to having harassed students on several occasions. It was reported that in August 1993, Daren slammed a student against a wall, and handcuffed and arrested him. A complaint was later filed which stated that on the way to the police station, Duren told the student, “For a while there I thought I was going to have to ‘Rodney King’ you.” The UCPD said that he was cleared on all charges. However, I can only speculate as to the actual legitimacy and autonomy that went into the investigations and whether there were biases that influenced the outcomes of these investigations.
The other officers present were Officers Alexis Bickamong, Kevin Kilgore and Andrew Ikeda, and the sergeant on duty was Philip Baguiao.
One particular student Jed Levine thinks this incident is one big trivial matter. He defends the police officers abuse of human and civil rights. He said in an article that “it is our duty as Americans to trust their actions and not ask questions or demand inquiries.” I believe this guy is smoking too much weed in college to have said something as idiotic as that. Yes, lets just have the police arrest and beat people on the street without any ramifications. There is no need for the Bill of Rights, civil rights and human rights here in American. Let’s just trust our officers. Wake up Jed! If that statement were true, I guess Rodney King got what he deserved, right? I encourage everyone to write both the police department and Jed Levine to state your feelings on the abuse of power that was illustrated against Mostafa Tabatabainejad.
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