CUCFA is very concerned about an incident during student protests of the latest UC fee increase wherein a campus police officer drew his gun and pointed it towards protestors. We reprint a letter written by UC Irvine professor Rei Terada below:
Peter King
Director of Media Relations
UC Office of the President
1111 Franklin St., 12th Floor
Oakland, CA 94607-5200
November 17, 2010
Dear Mr. King:
You are cited by the NPR station KALW as stating that UC campus police officer Kemper, who drew a gun today and pointed it at students, “was beaten with his own baton and drew his weapon in self-defense” (http://informant.kalwnews.org/2010/11/uc-regents-meeting-erupts-in-clashes-between-police-protesters/). KALW points out that KTVU video (http://www.ktvu.com/video/25828298/index.html) conflicts with this statement: “in the video, Kemper seems to lose his baton while trying to push through a crowd of sign-wielding demonstrators and draws his pistol shortly thereafter.” Indeed, the statement you are cited as having made — not that Kemper was afraid that he would be beaten, but that he had been beaten, and “with his own baton” — is too specific and too far from the facts shown in the video to be simply an alternate interpretation; Kemper is not touched with his own baton, much less “beaten.” We request that you explain what your statement was based on: who informed you that Officer Kemper had been beaten? Where did that person, in turn, get this idea? If Officer Kemper (through police spokespeople) is the original source of the details in your statement, then he has given a false representation and this itself is worthy of investigation. If Officer Kemper is not the source of the details in your statement, then surely it is a matter of public concern to know how your statement came about. We would like to be assured that UCOP is calling for an investigation into the source of and reason for the false statement. You may reply to all of us at this email address.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Rei Terada, Professor of Comparative Literature and Director, Critical Theory Emphasis, UC Irvine
Dina al-Kassim, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Eyal Amiran, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Film & Media Studies, UC Irvine
Amanda Armstrong, Ph.D. student in Rhetoric, UC Berkeley
Jessica Astillero, Berkeley, CA
Sarah Augusto, Ph.D. student in Sociology, UC Davis
Aaron Bady, Ph.D. student in English, UC Berkeley
Farah Barghi, Irvine, CA
Ian Balfour, Professor of English, York University and M.H. Abrams Distinguished Visiting Professor of English, Cornell University
Tom Boellstorff, Professor of Anthropology, UC Irvine
Abraham Castillo-Ruiz, student, UC Davis
Fabio Chee, Ph.D. student in Spanish and Portuguese, UC Irvine
Joshua Clover, Professor of English, UC Davis
Angela Covalt, Ph.D. student in Japanese Language and Literature, UC Irvine
Charles Sanders Creasy, Ph.D. student in English, UC Berkeley
Vileana de la Rosa, student, UC Irvine
Sonja Diaz, student, UC Berkeley School of Law
Emmeline Domingo, student, UC Irvine
Mel Draper, Ph.D. student in History, UC Davis
Anne-Lise Francois, Associate Professor of English, UC Berkeley
James Fujii, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures, UC Irvine
Alexander Gelley, Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Ricardo Gomez, student, UC Berkeley
Anna Guercio, Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Brook Haley, Lecturer, Humanities Core, UC Irvine
Damion Harriman, student, UC Merced
Matthew G. Hayduke, Santa Cruz, CA
Andrew Higgins, Ph.D. student in History, UC Davis
Victoria L. Hsieh, Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Adrienne Hurley, Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies, McGill University
Kim Icreverzi, Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Cecelia Joulain, Ph.D. student in Visual Studies, UC Irvine
Chau Johnson Kelly, Lecturer, St. Mary’s College and California State University, Chico
Ilgiz Khisamov, student, UC Irvine
Gabi Kirk, student, UC Santa Cruz
Erkki KochKetola, Pittsburg, CA
Jen Kosakowski, Ph.D., student in Culture and Theory, UC Irvine
Timothy Kreiner, Ph.D. student in English, UC Davis
Celeste Langan, Associate Professor of English, UC Berkeley
James Lagergren, student, UC Irvine
Jacob Lee, Ph.D. student in History, UC Davis
Munira Lokhandwala, Ph.D. student in Film and Media Studies, UC Berkeley
Brian Malone, Santa Cruz Unit Chair, UAW Local 2865
Daniel Marcus, Ph.D. student in History of Art, UC Berkeley
Michael Meranze, Professor of History, UCLA
Martin McQuillan, Professor of Literary Theory and Cultural Analysis, Dean of Arts and Social Sciences, Kingston University, London
Robert Meister, Professor of Political and Social Thought, UC Santa Cruz
Michael Montoya, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Chicano/Latino Studies, and Public Health, UC Irvine
A.J. Morgan, Ph.D. student in History, UC Davis
Raquel Narrea, student, UC Davis
Julie Beth Napolin, Ph.D. student in Rhetoric, UC Berkeley
Yoo-Hyun Oak, student, UC Davis
Tom O’Donnell, Ph.D. Student in History, UC Davis
Ben Parris, Ph.D. student in English, The Johns Hopkins University
Kristin Peterson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, UC Irvine
Kavita Philip, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Director, Critical Theory Institute, UC Irvine
Allison Reynolds, Costa Mesa, CA
Brian Riley, Chair, Graduate Student Association, UC Davis
Sophie Rollins, Ph.D. student in Literature, UC Santa Cruz
Alberto Salcedo, Graduate student in Education, UC Davis
Annette Schlichter, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Gabriele Schwab, Chancellor’s Professor of Comparative Literature, English, and German, UC Irvine
Rosemary Shultz, student, UC Merced
Brian Sparks, student, UC Davis
Jordan Stein, Assistant Professor of English, University of Colorado, Boulder
Christine Tang, student, UC Santa Barbara
Irene Tucker, Associate Professor of English, UC Irvine
Jason Willerwscheid, Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Assistant Professor of African-American Literature, UC Irvine
Robert Wood, Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Elise Youn, Ph.D. student in Urban Planning, UCLA
Eran Zelnik, Ph.D. student in History, UC Davis
Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA)