Landmark Event Staffing Services, which provided security for last Saturday’s Big Game, this week declined to comment on how its guards dealt with Stanford fans on the field after the game.
Midway through the fourth quarter of the Berkeley game, security guards were deployed in front of the Stanford fan section in the southeast corner of California Memorial Stadium, where Stanford supporters prepared to rush the field as the clock wound down.
According to Marc DeCoulode, lieutenant of investigations with the University of California police department at Berkeley, the guards were there for safety purposes, and it is “standard procedure” at Cal football games to have them in place. He said that if Cal’s football team had been in a position to win the game, similar measures would have been enacted to prevent Cal fans from rushing onto the field.
Some guards attempted to physically restrain and deter Stanford fans from joining in the Axe celebration on the field, said students who were there.
Jackson Dartez ’13 was among the students who headed for the field as the game ended.
“We were at the football players when a security guard came out of nowhere, ran at me, grabbed me and then threw me down and said, ‘Sir, you cannot be on the field. Go back into the stands now,’” Dartez said. “They pushed me back toward the stands.”
Dartez said he was not injured and does not plan to file a complaint.
Guards tried to contain the Stanford Band in the fourth quarter by getting the drum major and the Dollies off the field, said one band member.
“The band was annoyed because they were coercing the drum major back into the stands,” said Tyler Berbert ’13, who plays mellophone. “The Dollies were also annoyed because that’s what they do. They dance on the field.”
A YouTube video surfaced Saturday evening purporting to show a Stanford student being restrained by the neck by two men dressed in black who some believed were security guards, though their identities are unclear in the video. In a blog post on Sunday, George Malkin ’13 of The Unofficial Stanford Blog identified the student as Sam Pressman ‘11, who declined to comment for this story.
Public arrest records for Nov. 20 from UCPD show that Pressman was arrested at Memorial Stadium after the game for public drunkenness, one of four arrested for public drunkenness that afternoon. Pressman was held in custody until sober, then released.
DeCoulode said he was unaware of any violence by UCPD officers or by Landmark staffers.
“I haven’t heard any complaints of violence on Saturday,” he said.
Cal Athletics referred The Daily to UCPD for comment.
Landmark Event Staffing Services, a national event services company with offices in Oakland, Calif., was hired by Cal to provide security, ticket taking and ushering services during the game. Landmark says on its website it also provides event services to Stanford Athletics.
–Kabir Sawhney and Brianna Pang