When the kettlebell event occurred, I was reminded of events involving the campus police force. There have been numerous instances over the years in which our campus cops have abused their power. A couple of instances particularly come to mind --
In the 1960's during the reign of the late J.D. Morgan, there was a parking cop (is that the right term?) who mercilessly ticketed student. For years, students complained about him to no avail. One day, the parking cop put a ticket on JD Morgan's car. Within a week, the man had been fired.
A few years ago, a prominent African-American judge was driving through ucla. He was stopped. The apparent reason for the stop, "Driving while Black." The judge ended up under arrest. In the aftermath, the charges against him were dismissed. The judge sued and received -- I think it was -- $250,000, and the university entered into an agreement to retrain its police force to prevent further incidents and to adopt a new attitude.
Having not seen the tape of the P Diddy event and having an incomplete understanding of the event, I am reluctant to conclude what happened, but even giving the benefit of the doubt to coach involved, the campus police recommendation to have Combs charged with 3 felony counts of different brands of assault plus an additional felony count of issuing a terrorist threat, for a incident in which there were no injuries and which seems to have been essentially two hot head jerks getting into it, seemed an obvious case of over-charging.
The campus cops are essentially glorified security guards and seem to relish the role of being real cops. The result is often an inflated exercise of ego by the cops and abuse of their power. In this instance, it seems rather clear that the cops decisions resulted in turning a bad moment of minor significance into several weeks of bad publicity for the university.
Perhaps it's time for Chancellor Block to take a look at the situation.