UCLA Victory Celebration

As a UCLA alum, I was very proud of the 1995 basketball team and their April 3 victory over the University of Arkansas. I was not proud of the performance of the members of the student body who descended on the Westwood community following the game. The press made them and my university look like a bunch of spoiled children.

JOHN PAWSON

Huntington Beach

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I would like to offer a firsthand account of the celebration that occurred in Westwood following the victory by the UCLA basketball team. First, I believe that the unplanned gathering of a large group of people did necessitate a police presence. I also acknowledge that some members of the crowd were intoxicated, and some engaged in regrettably violent and destructive behavior.

However, the vast majority of us were there to peacefully celebrate. Without warning, two lines of marching, riot-gear-clad, baton-wielding officers suddenly plowed through us. The hundreds of fans who had been standing in the four-lane street were pushed against those on the sidewalk. Near-panic ensued as bodies were smashed together and people tripped in their rush to clear the street. Even as we tried to retreat, the officers continued to shove us with their batons.

The LAPD has now begun a campaign of spin-doctoring in which it is attempting to rationalize its excessive display of violence with claims that we ignored numerous warnings to disperse. I cannot speak to what happened in other areas of Westwood, but the hundreds of us at Gayley and Weyburn were never once asked to disperse.

TIFFANY A. ITO

Los Angeles

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Buried in the deeper recesses of your April 4 paper was a photograph of “cheering fans” overturning a radio station van. This was handled almost humorously. Rioting and fighting with police and store owners was excused as a “great time.”

One wonders how such incidents would be reported if they occurred in South-Central Los Angeles rather than the Westside.

GLEN MOWRER

Santa Barbara