Unsolicited Follow-Up for Our Unsolicited Traffic Stop Advice

Devoted blog readers will recall our unsolicited advice of last Wednesday to the folks in Murphy Hall.  We suggested that they spend their Thanksgiving weekend trying to figure out what happened when a UCLA police car stopped a motorist in Westwood for driving without a seatbelt buckled.  According to the Huffington Post, African-American Judge Superior Court Judge David Cunningham exited L.A. Fitness Gym around 10 am on Wednesday. [“Start” on the map above.]

Presumably, he pulled out of the garage you can see above in his Mercedes – beltless – and proceeded north on Gayley.  According to the press release issued by UCLA later in the day, he was stopped by UCLA police in front of 1050 Gayley. [“Stopped” on map.]

Although the press release does not identify that address, it happens to be the busy Whole Foods market shown above.  So it is likely that there are witnesses to what happened next.  [Hint to Murphy.  Better find out what they saw.  Judge Cunningham’s lawyer probably will be doing just that.]

Huffington Post account is at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/ucla-police-superior-court-judge_n_4345185.html

UCLA press release is at http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/statement-249534.aspx

The map shows that the southern edge of the UCLA campus is not in the immediate vicinity of the Whole Foods market.  We noted in our previous post that although UCLA police may have the legal right to stop cars for minor traffic infractions, there is an interesting question of whether such efforts are a good use of campus resources.  Does a Mercedes traveling two or so blocks in Westwood without a buckled safety belt really involve a threat to the campus?

It appears that things got out of hand with the judge handcuffed for a time.  We can’t imagine how that could happen:

Anyway, we look forward to a preliminary report by the end of this weekend for the sake of – you know – “campus climate.“