The Undergraduate Council last night passed a bill condemning police brutality and supporting student efforts to call attention to the issue in the wake of the Amadou Diallo verdict.

The bill passed by a wide margin, but not before an exhaustive debate that lasted over an hour and touched on the finer points of criminal justice, philosophy and linguistics.

And to no one's surprise, the debate included some introspection over whether the council--which for the past three weeks has concentrated solely on issues related to Harvard--ought to be discussing national issues like police brutality in the first place.

Former council President Noah Z. Seton '00, for one, said he thought the council was making a big mistake.

"It moderately upsets me that the council is moving back in the direction [of dealing with issues not related to student services]," Seton said. "This is the reason the council, when I got here freshman year, was thought of as irrelevant."

But most council members didn't see the bill in that light, as it passed 40-12, with 3 abstentions.

Even Jeffrey A. Letalien '00, one of the council's most conservative members, decided not only to support but also to sponsor the bill.

The bill's authors made a concerted effort to tie the bill to issues relevant at Harvard, including a "whereas" clause saying that "Harvard students have been victims of overly aggressive police tactics and police brutality."