All remained quiet on campus
Tuesday, as the fourth anniversary of
the war in Iraq came and went with¬
out incident.
The scene was much different than
that which took place four years ago
when three students were hand¬
cuffed, two were arrested and cam¬
pus police were accused of miscon¬
duct after students staged a protest
against the war. A subsequent inves¬
tigation, conducted by former superi¬
or court judge Gabriel A. Gutierrez
at the request of the board of
trustees, stated that there was no evi¬
dence to suggest that campus police
were responsible for the injuries
claimed in the lawsuit filed by the
students.
“I would prefer not to comment
on that incident and would instead
like to plan and look forward to the
manner in which we would respond
to a similar incident in the future,”
said Peter Michael, PCC chief of
police.
Since then, there were a number of
David Arenas/Courier
Then: Students rallied to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq,
which turned ugly when students tried to enter the C Building.
Rocky Brown/Courier
Now: The campus was devoid of any protesters on Tuesday,
the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
issues that have been debated
because of that protest, chief among
them was the need to implement a
time, place and manner policy and
whether or not campus police should
be armed.
While the
СТА
and Academic
Senate oppose a time, place, and
manner policy because they contend
it would violate the staff and student
First Amendment rights, campus
police remains adamant that such a
policy is necessary to ensure student
safety.
“Not having a time, place and
manner policy makes things harder
on us as officers because it makes it
difficult to maintain control when
something does take place,” said
Michael. “Take the Christian group
protest a couple of weeks ago. We
had two groups confronting each
other. If there had been such a policy
in place, we could have just separat¬
ed the two groups (Rainbow Student
Alliance and Repent America). They
would have still been able to get what
they wanted to say across, but would¬
n’t have been at the point where it
could have escalated into something
more. The policy is simply a matter
of allowing the police department to
maintain peace while still allowing
people to exercise their constitution¬
al rights,” he added.
See 1 War’ - Page 3
Transient Problem On Campus
Jacob D aval b s/Courier
Transients, some of whom are not
enrolled students, use the showers in
the W Building.
Nico Stevens
Staff Writer
Some who frequent the men’s shower
room in the W Building might have come
across someone using one of the shower
stalls who isn’t really supposed to be there.
A common occurrence at open-campus
schools is people without showers or homes
coming into the facilities through the back
door and using them, sometimes for hours
on end.
“It’s an ongoing problem,” said campus
police Lt. Brad Young. “We are called
roughly once or twice a week. The usual
peak times are in the cold winter months.”
Sometimes the people enroll in school,
maybe even register for one class and end
up never attending so they can use the
showers and be excused “technically” as a
student.
“It becomes an issue when people who
don’t appear to be students loiter in the
showers for hours on end or begin exhibit¬
ing strange behavior. Usually they shower,
shave, or do whatever else they can while
they’re in there.” said Terry Stoddard, swim
coach whose office is located right next to
the men’s locker room in the W Building.
Students usually come to Stoddard when¬
ever people in the showers are acting
strange, have been loitering, or have been
sleeping in the locker rooms. Stoddard
acknowledged some of the people who use
the facilities are not necessarily homeless
but might not have access to a working
shower.
“For the most part, they are usually in
there early in the mornings or late at night
when students frequent the showers least,”
said campus police Detective Alan Chan
and Transportation Assistant Peter Benson.
“In order to be on campus, a person must
have business here, such as attending a
meeting or event, going to class, seeing a
counselor, etc.” said Young. “This is a com¬
munity college, so this place is for the edu¬
cational purposes of the community.”
“We would like the student body to be
aware of possible vagrants on campus dis¬
playing questionable behavior and report
them to us.” he stated.
And what of these people themselves?
Edwin Jones, a local homeless man who
identified himself as a vagrant, said that he
does not use the PCC facilities but knows
people on the street who have used the
showers and even the lockers.
As for the Pasadena Police, Jones said
that, for the most part, the police in Pasade¬
na don’t bother homeless people. “Unless
they think you’re on dope or something,
they won’t mess with you.”
“Put yourself in their shoes,” said Det.
Chan. “These people who are assumed to
be homeless will naturally hang around the
available resources. Every situation is differ¬
ent. We handle each situation on campus
according to its severity.”
Raul Cabral
News Editor
Have You Seen Her?
Police want to speak with this
woman because she fits the
description of a suspect wanted in
the many thefts reported on cam¬
pus. Contact PCC police with any
information regarding her location.
The Independent Student Voice of PCC , Serving Pasadena Since 1915
Volume 95, Issue 5
Pasadena City
College
PCC And The War
Pour Years Later
March 2003... March 2007...
2003 Campus Protest
Led To Arrests,
Investigations and
Issues That Still
Remain Unresolved