Students Back Man Who Staged Sting

Eleven members of the UC Irvine Black Student Union demonstrated Friday in front of the Long Beach police station and called for the resignation of an officer involved in a recent controversy involving allegations of brutality.

The students said they protested to support Don Jackson, a former Hawthorne police sergeant who secretly taped his own arrest as part of a sting operation in conjunction with the NBC “Today Show.” Jackson has accused Long Beach police of using excessive force when he was arrested in the Jan. 14 incident.

“If it was any black person that that happened to, we’d come out,” student leader Pernell Clark, 22, said.

The UCI students, who were joined by two from Saddleback College, formed a line behind a red, black and green flag--symbolic of black nationalism--and chanted: “Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Police brutality has got to go.” They protested peacefully for about 45 minutes in front of the station at 400 W. Broadway.

Their chants included one calling for the resignation of Officer Mark Dickey, who was involved in the altercation with Jackson. Dickey has been reassigned to a desk job as an auto theft detective pending the outcome of investigations of the incident.

“We want to raise human awareness,” said Joycelyn Allen, president of UCI’s Black Student Union.

“We want Don Jackson to know that we support him, and we want the police to know we won’t stand for it (brutality),” she said.

The students had hoped to meet with Long Beach Police Chief Lawrence Binkley but acknowledged that they had not made an appointment. About 30 minutes into the protest, Clark went inside the station to the front desk and asked to meet with Binkley.

A clerk said that Binkley was not at the station but offered to have a sergeant meet with one representative from the group. Clark declined, saying, “We’re in this together.”

Police Lt. Mike Hill said no one in the department would comment on the incident involving Jackson until various investigations are complete.

Clark, a member of the Black Student Union, said the protest was planned after the students saw a videotape last weekend of the Jackson arrest.

Jackson was pulled over for a routine traffic stop on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach Jan. 14. The videotape first shows Jackson and Dickey arguing. What happens next is subject to interpretation. Jackson said he was pushed through a plate glass window and then slammed down on the hood of a police car. Dickey maintained the incident was accidental. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the FBI are investigating.

Clark said the students did not know Jackson and had not talked with him before the demonstration. Jackson could not be reached for comment.