Letters

Murder – tragedy could have been prevented

I am beyond mad.

I am sad. Kevin Jeske lost his life while on duty as a UCLA
employee through UCPD (University of California Police Department)
incompetence. Why was Kevin Jeske not escorted by the UCPD while
transferring cash receipts from Wadsworth Theater to the Central
Ticket Office?

The Daily Bruin reports that the UCPD provides escort service –
sometimes.

Sometimes? How do you determine which times? Is this a lottery?
Did Kevin Jeske lose? And how?

There is no excuse for not having a UCPD escort for all such
transfers. Several UCLA parking booths had been robbed before this
murder. Those were wake up calls. The private security guard at the
Wadsworth Theater got it right and escorted Kevin Jeske to his car.
Why couldn’t the UCPD do the same?

I request the Daily Bruin to continue to investigate this
tragedy. The Daily Bruin stated: "The UCPD refused to discuss the
details of their escort procedures" yet university police Chief
Clarence Chapman said, "There is absolutely no reason for anyone to
have any concern about their personal safety while on campus at
UCLA …"

After Kevin Jeske’s murder, that isn’t very reassuring. If
escort procedures are not reviewed by an outside and independent
authority, how do we know that they are adequate and that we are
safe? Chancellor Young should step up and demand an unbiased
investigation. The Daily Bruin should keep the pressure on.

It appears that UCLA is exercising damage control, just as it
did during the 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion when dorm students rioted
and looted Westwood Village.

After the murder, why didn’t Young hold a press conference to
address the public? Why weren’t flags at half mast around campus
and Wadsworth? Why not a public memorial service at Pauley
Pavilion? Why not name the Central Ticket Office the Kevin Jeske
Central Ticket Office?

If you can donate money and get a building named after you, why
do you not get the same for giving your life in the line of UCLA
duty? If it had been a police officer who had instead died in this
incident, all of the above would have occurred.

Kevin Jeske was an innocent victim. He was not trained to escort
cash receipts alone.

I call for the resignation of police Chief Chapman.

Shame on UCLA.

D.J. Schulte ‘Nam Vet Activist

SAGE request for change of policy seems
mistaken

Student Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE) lead organizer
Mike Miller makes a truly amazing statement in the September 23-26
issue of the Daily Bruin. When discussing changes SAGE would like
to make in university policy, he says he would like to change the
university’s policy on sexual harassment investigations because the
current process prevents the accuser from being able to face the
accused.

Pardon me, but don’t you have that reversed? One of the
fundamental democratic rights which we have in this country is the
right of the accused to face his or her accuser. The Sixth
Amendment to the Constitution states: "the accused shall enjoy the
right … to be confronted with the witness against him."

I’ve only been at UCLA for three days, but do you mean to tell
me that SAGE would allow union members who are accused of
harassment to be punished (and have their careers destroyed)
without even having a chance to cross-examine their accusers? This
is how a labor union purports to defend its members?

Glenn Sacks Latin American Studies