Campus Police Head Says Ethnic Slur Not Intended

An increase in assaults on the Valley College campus in Van Nuys reflects a society of immigrants, such as Iranians who “just hit” when they get angry and war-hardened Vietnamese to whom “violence means nothing,” the head of the campus police said this week.

The comments by Capt. Karl Traber brought reactions of outrage from student leaders, who accused him of ethnic stereotyping, and a defense from college President Mary E. Lee, who said Traber was talking about American society in general, not specific campus problems.

Traber was asked by a reporter Thursday to comment on a rise in the number of assaults reported on the campus, from eight in 1990 to 13 in 1991.

“We have quite a population of Iranians,” Traber replied. “When they get mad, they just hit. They don’t reason.”

He added: “We have Vietnamese students. They were raised in the war, so violence means nothing to them.”

A college spokeswoman said none of the 13 reported assaults in 1991 involved students from Iran or Vietnam.

Contacted Friday about the statements, Traber said he was not speaking about students, but was explaining why American society as a whole was becoming more violent.

“This is so out of context,” he said. “What I meant was that some cultures look at things differently.”

Traber said he was thinking of an incident in which an Iranian student reportedly verbally threatened a female student who got a better grade than he did. The Iranian student told him, Traber said, that in Iran, women were not supposed to excel over men. “He just wanted to hit,” Traber said.

“I’m not saying I didn’t say that,” Traber said, “but I was talking about this particular individual and society as a whole.”

Traber said his remark about Vietnamese was a reference to a documentary about Vietnamese gangs he had seen on television, which attributed their propensity toward violence to the Vietnam War.

Lee said Friday that she had talked with Traber about his remarks and was satisfied with his explanation.

“He was just talking abut society, making conversation,” Lee said. “Karl is the most big-hearted, helpful person we could have on campus as a police captain. He doesn’t really have that attitude toward people.”

Lee said Traber, who was a Los Angeles Police Department officer for 22 years before coming to the college security force in 1984, is very helpful to students of any background.

Shannon Stack, director of instructional services who acts as the college’s press spokeswoman, said that Traber probably did not understand how his statements could be interpreted. “I think he just got carried away,” she said.

Student leaders reached Friday said they were shocked by Traber’s statements.

Ben Padua, 24, student body vice president and a Latino who is one of the college’s nearly 9,000 minority students, said the remarks “make me feel bad inside. I think stereotyping is not justified in any way. I have Iranian and Vietnamese friends and they don’t react and do things that way.”

“I think you can’t say that violence is nothing to Vietnamese,” said Michelle Diaz, 19, the student government’s commissioner on Asian concerns. “There are a lot of Vietnamese who want peace and want to forget what happened in their country.”

In a statement released Friday by the college, Traber said that all officers at Valley College are instructed to treat every student equally.

“There have been no complaints over any unfair treatment on ethnic grounds,” he said.

Traber said that he was born in Germany and his command of English is not perfect.

“I have learned something from all this,” he said, “and that’s not to talk in generalities.”