Letters

D.J. Schulte, Glenn Sacks
Published: Monday, September 30, 1996

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