After four violent incidents (one fatal) erupted at a football game at California State University in Sacramento, controversy erupted because one of the alleged perpetrators pictured in the school newspaper, in a dangerous choke hold while resisting arrest, was Latin American. As a result, Latino students stole 3,000 copies of the State Hornet, used them to barricade the paper's editorial offices, then presented a list of nonnegotiable demands, including a permanent ban on publication of any material depicting minority members in a negative light.

Throughout this uproar, university president Donald Gerth remained silent, even when the editorial offices received numerous bomb threats and death threats. But a month later, when the ethnic studies department received a bomb threat, he wheeled into action, calling out the campus police, contacting the FBI, and sending out a stern campus-wide letter condemning the threat and demanding tolerance.

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