Police
misconduct interferes with student’s
rights
Louis Afrouznia
In the mist of several police brutality cases another officer decides to take
his problems out on two innocent college students, except this time he harassed
the wrong guy. On April 20, the Cal State Long Beach chapter of Public Relations
Student Society of America (PRSSA), of which I am president, along with the American
Marketing Association (AMA) and Westbound Communications, hosted a social event
at Wasabi in downtown Long Beach.
The night started with networking and socializing among CSULB students and and
later led to dancing at a nearby club. Unfortunately, for myself and my roommate,
the night ended in a traumatic fashion.
As we walked down Pine Street to our cars when we noticed a police officer parked
on the street directly in front of us. As we approached him my roommate slapped
a sign on the street in excitement of the night. Little did we know such a slap
would turn into a surreal experience.
The officer immediately swerved in front of us and got out of the car. He told
my roommate to put his hands on the hood of his vehicle. He then looked over
at me and told me to get lost.
Before the incident occurred I had taken out my wallet to see how much money
I had, so when I was told to get lost I said I was not going to leave my friend
and naturally went to put my wallet in my back pocket.
Before I knew it I was staring down the barrel of a gun thinking I was going
to be killed.
Picture yourself being stopped by an officer for slapping a street sign. The
situation was more amusing than anything because we were being stopped for something
so ridiculous. It wasn’t until I realized a cop standing less than three
feet away was pointing a gun directly at my face that I knew there was nothing
amusing about the situation. This was when my passion to express my First Amendment
right took over.
Naturally when a cop points a gun at you the last thing you want to do is say
something that might tempt him to pull the trigger. However, a combination of
adrenaline and emotions left me no choice but to exert myself. I passionately
chewed this officer out. When he called for back up, I continued speaking out
on the injustice and discrimination we had endured.
Roughly eight other officers came to the scene and forcefully pinned us to the
ground in a manner that was absolutely unnecessary. I was not resisting or fighting
back, but because I was expressing my discontent, the officer who took me down
decided to do so through excessive force. At one point I screamed this was racial
profiling and in response I heard cries of laughter as my face was being buried
into the pavement.
When our hands were forced back onto the hood of his car, all of the officers
stared at me as I continued to exert myself.
One of the officers screamed out, “Welcome
to Long Beach, and you’re lucky we don’t drop you off in somebody’s
neighborhood.”
I was appalled when I heard those remarks, but it truly made me realize how scandalous
some of these officers were. They found out neither my roommate nor I had a record
and had no reason to take us to jail.
Being fed up with the entire situation I told the officer to either take us to
jail or let us go. When he didn’t answer we began to walk away. He yelled
and when I turned around he threw my license at me. My roommate wrote his badge
number down and
I made sure to get his name.
I’m writing this column for one reason. Not because I want revenge on the
officer, or because I plan on suing him and the department, but because I want
the public to know you should never let an officer, or anyone else for that manner,
intimidate you.
I don’t want to be another statistic waiting for my complaint to go through
the system. I understand harassment happens every day, but what I can do is tell
the next person to be prepared.
It was obvious this cop wanted me to feel hopeless, like I had no rights, but
I want members of the public to know they have rights and to never let someone
make you feel hopeless.
Louis Afrouznia is a senior public relations major.
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