Ask questions, but review policy

Re “UCLA orders outside probe of Taser arrest,” Nov. 18

I support the officer who used a Taser at UCLA. All the student had to do was be cooperative, and he wasn’t. With serious crimes happening on campus, it’s reasonable to ask these things. Being a student does not mean you are not able to cause trouble. The students protesting are making a mountain out of a molehill and should be grateful that police are looking to improve the safety of their campus.

KRISTINA CAHILL

Long Beach

*

Say this individual was not a UCLA student but a rapist, or a terrorist, but was convincing enough when campus police questioned him that they left him alone to later commit his crime. Either way, it’s a lose-lose situation for the university, as it would be found negligent for not having its police enforce campus rules. And the students who are now so vociferously supporting an individual who clearly was uncooperative would be rallying against the university for not providing security.

DENISE HILDEBRAND

Newport Beach

*

If, as Assistant UCLA Police Chief Jeff Young said, UCLA police officers are allowed to use Tasers on passive resisters, wasn’t the officer authorized to do what he did? It seems to me that this is a case that requires UCLA to change its policy regarding passive resisters, but any new rule cannot be applied retroactively to the police officers.

DAVID BURKENROAD

Los Angeles

*

I was dismayed to see The Times’ front-page story about students protesting the use of Tasers by UCLA police. At the same time, your story about four young ladies who had been assaulted at Cal State Long Beach was buried. It is certainly possible that the UCLA police exceeded their mandate and that the UCLA student who refused to show his ID had his civil liberties violated. Yet it is undeniable that the young ladies at Cal State Long Beach had their civil liberties violated in a way that was much more severe.

UCLA, like all urban campuses, has had problems with sexually motivated assaults, including rape. It is attempting to deal with that problem. It is surely not unreasonable to ask any student to show ID in campus buildings after 11 p.m. There may have been a violation of civil rights at UCLA; I do not know. But your coverage of it is wrong.

CHARLES TAYLOR

Los Angeles