CSUN police arrive at the student organization Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan's (MEChA) first meeting on Sept. 2 after an incident with LAPD officers. The incident, which MEChA members said was profiling and harrassment by LAPD officers, is being investigated.
A top Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) official confirmed that officers were conducting a training exercise at CSUN that involved members of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) earlier this semester. LAPD is now investigating the incident.
Members of MEChA said they were targeted and profiled by LAPD officers during their first meeting on Sept. 2. Members said they were followed, harassed and intimidated by “undercover police officers” during a ceremony to welcome first-time freshmen to their organization.
“We are investigating how the incident started, specific activities of our officers and any interactions that occurred. It is unfortunate that there was any interaction or conflict,” said Deputy Chief Michel Moore, who oversees the San Fernando Valley and is a finalist for the position of L.A.’s police chief, recently vacated by William Bratton. “I do not think that there will be any more training by LAPD on CSUN’s campus.”
Chicano/a studies professor Dr. Jorge Garcia, who was present during the confrontation, said he is pleased to learn that LAPD officers would not be returning to CSUN for training.
“I think it’s excellent. I do not think this is an appropriate place to conduct training,” Garcia said. It creates a climate where students are afraid to exercise their constitutional rights to freedom of assembly, of free speech and of the press.”
Moore said the officers, from the protective security task force, Archangel section of the Emergency Services division, were receiving training experience in monitoring gatherings, crowds or individuals in public spaces and that they were outside his “chain of command.” They were receiving training from a third party.
“I was unaware that they were on CSUN’s campus. I wasn’t made aware until after the incident. These officers didn’t feel it was necessary to notify the area chain of command that they would be on (CSUN’s) campus,” Moore said.
“Subordinates within LAPD who were running this training didn’t give full disclosure to LAPD command staff and didn’t give full disclosure to us,” said CSUN Police Department Chief Anne Glavin.
“We learned after the fact that they had an outside contractor running the training. We thought that this was internal training involving LAPD supervisors and LAPD officers,” Glavin said.
Responding to reports of a private third party’s involvement in the incident, Moore said that private companies are sometimes used to conduct training for LAPD to “ensure that all practices are state of the art and contemporary.”
Glavin said that if the CSUN police department had been aware that there would be a third party involved in the training exercise, they would not have been inclined to grant permission to LAPD to come on campus.
Glavin said Moore assured her that MEChA was not targeted or that there wasn’t any profiling involved. She stressed that there was no intention to involve the members of the organization in the training exercise but that LAPD was “wrong and had no business doing what they were doing.”
“It was an amazing irony that these officers wandered into territory where MEChA happened to be meeting. These officers had no clue who they were dealing with,” she said. “Needless to say, they do now. I’m sure they are highly embarrassed and thus the apology from the LAPD, a very sincere apology.”
Garcia said he was still skeptical that there was no profiling involved.
“So a group of Mexicans just so happened to be there while they are training and there was no profiling, and they just happen to practice on this group,” Garcia said. “That’s an absurdity, on its face!”
Glavin and Moore have described the incident as an “aberration” and an “isolated event.”
“This is highly unusual and I want to stress this. This was not at all normal business,” Glavin said. “It was completely something that went sideways. Neither myself nor Deputy Chief Moore approve of what occurred.”
Garcia disagreed that the incident was an isolated event.
“This hasn’t happened here while she (Glavin) was here but it has in the past, there were paid police officers sitting in Chicano Studies classes and things like that,” Garcia said. “It’s very nice of her to say this hasn’t happened before but she has very limited knowledge and history of what has taken place here. I’m sorry but the chief is speaking out of ignorance, and by ignorance, I mean the lack of knowledge.”
Garcia said that in the 1970s, the organization and the Chicano/a studies department was the target of surveillance and infiltration at the hands of law enforcement agencies.
Moore expressed the department’s regrets for the disturbance and conflict and has issued an apology for the incident during a meeting with Glavin and Dean of Humanities Elizabeth Say.
Say has relayed the apology to members in the Chicano/a department and said that a request for an official written apology is up to the department to decide.
MEChA president Abraham Ramirez, who said the organization has always been a target of law enforcement agencies because they are a progressive organization, said the organization will meet with Moore soon, but that an apology is not enough.
“We deserve more than an apology. We deserve respect, the same as anyone else. There should be more consequences,” Ramirez said. “We are going to get to the bottom of this and find out everything that happened.”
Garcia said the department is looking for outside assistance to pursue the matter through legal channels out of concern for this event reoccurring in the future.
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Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has just selected Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Charlie Beck to head the LAPD and he has to take an active part in this investigation. There are still many questions to be answered concerning this egregious insult to Mexican-American students at Cal-State Northridge in particular and to the entire Los Angeles Latino community in general.
We need to know the identity of all the rogue officers that took part in the incident and most important we need complete details on who this “third party” is. Is this third party tied to Homeland Security in some way? Does this third party have connections to racist or nativist elements? This is not Maricopa County in Arizona and we do not want Arpaios in the LAPD.
Dr. Jorge Garcia and MEChA President Abraham Ramirez are absolutely correct. An apology is not enough. There has to be an absolute guarantee that this type of LAPD abuse never occurs again. All those responsible for this incident must be punished.
We need to pull their pants down and expose these undercover thugs.
Who are they, and why where they on campus. Lets get the LAPD to disclose their identity. A simple ” Were sorry,” is going to not cutting it.
We demand disclosure of the third party contractor information, and yes, are the linked to Homeland Security.
“an absolute guarantee this type of LAPD abuse never occurs again”
Abuse?!? What, having a few officers in training observing your group? Is it abusive to look at people nowadays?
One guy “ran” at you before stopping and turning around?
Of course you guys (paranoid) got defensive and started an altercation and some words were exchanged.
There was no abuse by LAPD (or MEChA)! Time to move on!
Well, I guess this is all part of the New World Order. Who are these rogue police officers ? Who do they work for ? and most important are they federally funded?
We demand answers and LAPD needs to give them to us.
I’m a graduate of CSUN (1988) and I find these gestapo tactics despicable.
“Gestapo tactics”: Truly another foolish comment from the Left. You don’t like when some nutball holds up an Obama-Hitler sign at an Obama “townhall”; we don’t like it either. Both are equally foolish.
Myself and half of Los Angeles wishes that Joe Arpaio was LAPD Cheif. LA would not longer be the gang capital of the world, MS-13 would be gone, MM would be gone, and the LAPD 100 Most wanted would be down to 12. Don’t beleive me? Check the website. Thank you MECHA for showing your true colors. You always have, and always will be an unwelcomed part of society.
to true dud-Why don’t you move to Maricopa County? Don’t leave mad, just leave!
I think that “true dude” needs to chill out and brush up on the college-level writing skills. You’d gain a little more credibility … dude.
Find out who the third party was that got the contract to “train” the police, and investigate them. Yet another example of the government giving policing authority to private businesses? So they now run schools, prisons and police? The takeover is almost complete. Our minds are next on their list — if it isn’t too late already.
Half of Los Angeles, myself included, wished that Joe Arapio would be named Chief of Police for the LAPD.
If Mr. Arapio was in charge of the LAPD, then Los Angeles would no longer be gang capital of the world. Gangs such as MS-13 and MM would be gone, and the LAPD 100 Most Wanted List would be trimmed down to just 12 people. Don’t believe me? Check the website.
Thank you, MECHA, for showing your true colors. You always have — and always will be — an unwelcome part of society.
I translated what “true dude” said so people can focus on his or her message, not his or her grammar. I think he or she makes some good points. Unfortunately, it is easier to attack his or her grammar than attack his or her message.
Why is articulation important? First, as a campus newspaper it is implied that people who read its articles and post here are in the process of receiving – or has received – a college education. If “true dude” does not fit in the above category, then so be it.
I’m only going to say it once: the written message is not clear when it is not articulated clearly (those with boorish attitudes are free to think otherwise and I really don’t care). Lack of oral and written communication skills in the real world = lack of well-paying job opportunities and job promotion, and the freshman year of college is where those skills are honed. You know, I’d like to see someone submit a resume written in the “true dude” style – I’ll eat an entire humble pie once I receive word that the person has landed a six-figure salary with it on the first try.
With that said, Arizona has its own share of pros and cons (but that’s a story for another time). If the “true dude” sentiment reflects 50% of the population in Los Angeles, what prevents this “true dude” as well as that 50% from being true to themselves and doing something about circumstances they don’t like? What prevents the “true dude” and the 50% from uprooting themselves and leaving to a county that is implied to be so much better? Where is this “website” that the “true dude” mentions as evidence – with a conspicuously missing URL – that would reveal more about the “true dude” viewpoint?
So there’s my response to the “true dude” message. What do you have to say in return?
Pfft,
I have a 6 figure job. I’m an author of 4 best sellers, 2 NY Times top ten, and 1 London’s Group “Book of the Year” award.
btw: ask and ye shall receive:
http://www.lapdonline.org/all_most_wanted
In an effort to achieve full disclosure; my publisher pays another person another 6 figure salary to review my work. This person is called an editor.