Fall Week 11 Issue 210.11

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UT

NIVERSITY IMES

Dec. 7, 2015

www.csulauniversitytimes.com

C A L I F O R N I A S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y, L O S A N G E L E S

Issue 210.11

San Bernardino mass shooting, too close to home Syel Rizwan Farook, a former CSU student, killed almost a dozen in worst mass shooting since Sandy Hook. Hannah Jacobsen Staff Reporter

Every Angelino’s heart sank last Wednesday, Dec. 2nd, as news media alerted the world that, once again, a mass shooting had taken place. As BBC put it, it was “just another day in the United States of America,” an accurate statement when, in 2015, we’ve had more mass shootings than days. However, Wednesday’s mass shooting at San Bernardino’s Inland Regional Center—a facility which provides services to developmentally disabled people—was less than 60 miles away from our own campus. According to Cal State LA records, a man named Syed Rizwan Farook was admitted as an undergraduate for Fall 2007, but never attended. He was even accepted into the electrical engineering graduate program at Cal State LA for Fall 2012, and again did not end up attending. Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik entered a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center that Farook had earlier stormed out of after some kind of dispute. They were dressed in dark tactical gear and holding legally purchased rifles and semi-automatic handguns. The air was soon filled full of bullets, killing 14 and injuring 21. It was the worst mass shoot-

INSIDE: LA ONDA: PRIMERA

GASOLINERA PEMEX EN HOUSTON

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Vigil held for victims lost in San Bernardino shooting | Photo Courtesy | LATimes.com

ing since Sandy Hook in 2012, where a 20-year old gunman fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staff members after killing his own mother. The site of the shooting could have been an even greater tragedy. The couple had amassed an armory of weapons and explosives in their home that showed they were equipped and could have been planning another attack before they were killed in a standoff with law enforcement officials. This shooting, and the pain that it has caused for loved ones and the community, has once again incited a debate on gun legislation and terrorism by top government officials after the discovery that the guns had been legally purchased. “We’re going to have to, I think, search ourselves as a society to make sure that we can take basic steps that would make it harder, not impossible, but harder for individuals to get access to weapons,” President Obama said Thursday, Dec. 3rd. Following the shooting, Democrats called for nationally tightened gun restrictions while Re-

PRESIDENT COVINO MEETS WITH BLACK STUDENT UNION ABOUT DEMANDS PG 2

publicans argued that the country was under attack by religious extremists that the U.S. was not prepared to deal with. “The horrific murder underscores that we are at a time of war, whether or not the current administration realizes it,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz said. “We need a president who will call the enemy by its name: radical Islamic terrorism.” President Obama has maintained that “we do not yet know why this terrible event occurred,” saying that we need to keep our facts straight while focusing on closing the loopholes in our nation’s gun laws. This was further complicated by the discovery that Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to an Islamic State leader through Facebook. The Islamic State (ISIS) is a violent jihadist apocalyptic group with social media strategies that have the ability to influence “lone wolf” terrorist attacks in the United States. Islam itself, which has vastly different beliefs from violent jihadists, should not be seen as the cause of terrorism; this is supported by the fact that Farook

NEW GRIITY MARVEL NETFLIX SERIES PREMIERES PG 4

stopped attending his mosque two years ago, after two years of regular attendance. He stopped attending soon after he came back from a trip to Saudi Arabia with a new wife, Malik. President Covino expressed his concern over potential threats to Muslim students at Cal State LA as a result of this horrible event, and sent out a campus wide email asking for respect and unity in the campus community. “Cal State LA is a diverse community, bonded by respect for all people. In trying times, it’s important to remember what unites us: our push for excellence; our belief in the power of education; our commitment to mutual respect, openness and diversity,” President Covino wrote in a campus wide email. “What unites us is far greater than any differences between us. We must reject any attempt to blame the Muslim community for the heinous acts of a few people. This is not who we are as a University.” The question currently uniting Los Angeles and the world is: what was the meaning behind this attack? A federal law enforcement of-

OP-ED: ARE THE NEW OFF-SITE PARKING SPACES ANY HELP?

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ficial said Friday that Farook had contact with people from at least two terrorist organizations overseas, including Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria and the radical Shabab group in Somalia. In addition, Malik had pledged allegiance to an Islamic State leader in a Facebook posting. This has led the FBI to formally investigate Wednesday’s tragic event as an act of terrorism, though there is no clear evidence that they were a part of a larger terrorist network. Currently, the theory is that this couple was self-radicalized. “We are spending a tremendous amount of time, as you might imagine, over the last 48 hours trying to understand the motives of these killers and trying to understand every detail of their lives,” FBI Director Comey said. The confusion over the “soft target” that was attacked and the meaning behind it makes us wonder: how easily could it have been us? If Farook had accepted a position at Cal State LA’s graduate program in 2012, if he’d decided to attend Cal State LA as an undergraduate rather than choosing San Bernardino… how close did we come to the new, tragic game of “Duck, Duck, Shooting”?

WOMEN'S TENNIS TEAM GET A CHANCE MEETING WITH TENNIS LEGEND BILLIE JEAN KING

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Fall Week 11 Issue 210.11 by CSULA University Times - Issuu