UCLAProtest Account

Thursday November 19, 2009Approximately 2:30pm – 5:30pmUniversity of California, Los AngelesCovel Commons Parking GarageAt approximately 2:30 PM on Nov. 19

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, I joined a group of students blocking one of the Covel parkingexits. These students were gathered peacefully, some on the sides doing homework, some in the centerchanting, some toward the back playing drums and other instruments. Highway patrol officers werestanding behind a barricade, and students were both standing and seated in front of the barricade. (Seefigure 1)Figure 1A nearby group had dwindled in size, and some students were asked to go to this other location to help,and I went. Here, police officers were standing loosely together inside the parking structure, behind themechanical arm that allows vehicles to enter and exit. (See figure 2)

Figure 2When I arrived, there were a few cars with drivers asking to be let through, and students were in the midstof determining whether or not one woman in particular should be allowed to leave the parking structurewith her child. It was decided that she should be allowed to drive out, but that the students would resumetheir positions immediately after her departure.For some minutes after she left, the students were mostly engaged in their own conversations or watchinga group of modern dancers that were performing material they had learned in class. Other dancers in thecrowd joined them. The students closest to the police officers were mostly seated; those farther awaywere standing or dancing.At some point I noticed the police officers beginning to tighten their formation, buckle their helmets, andotherwise prepare themselves. (See figure 3)

Figure 3I had been facing the officers, but I turned around, knowing that if I continued to face the officers and webegan moving down the inclined driveway, I was likely to trip on a student who remained seated, therebyharming myself or others. I therefore decided to face the crowd and the direction of movement rather thanthe officers. Soon the officers began moving forward shoulder to shoulder with their batons held in frontof them. As I was among those sitting in the driveway closest to the officers, I was literally the first pointof contact.Although I was seated with my back to the officers, I could feel them approaching. One of the officersbegan repeatedly jabbing me with the end of his baton, shouting “You need to move!” He did not strike orhit me, but the jab was insistent. Slowly but compliantly, I moved forward as requested. Again he jabbedand shouted; again I moved forward. I remained seated. I do not consider the officer’s use of his baton tobe excessive, nor was any more force necessary, as anyone could see that I was in fact moving and thatthe line of police was advancing. Because I was complying, because I was not provoking or antagonizingthe officers, because I was not shouting or even facing the officers, and because nothing in the behaviorof the gathered students in any way communicated any sort of violent intent, I was astonished by whathappened next.I am told that documentation exists of these events as they transpired, but you will understand why I havenone myself for this particular duration. If nothing else, one officer present carried a video camera at alltimes and was seemingly charged exclusively with videotaping the events.One of the officers used his or her Taser on me. I am not sure if it was the male officer who was proddingme with his baton or the female officer who stood next to him, but I do know that the baton was pressingon the right side of my body and the Taser came slightly from the left. As I was already in a passiveposition and complying with the orders to move forward as those orders came, I cannot fathom any

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