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Law should serve and protect us, not climate of fear
By David Baker
October 1, 2007 | Today, police are doing nothing more
than protecting and serving the status quo. With their
actions toward college students lately, officers are
unknowingly creating a climate of fear.
Fear of being Tasered -- at a political rally.
Fear of having your house surrounded by policemen
on a Friday night.
Fear of wearing something different that may cause
suspicion.
There's no problem with enforcing the law. There's
no problem with protecting and serving society. That's
a police officer's job. The problem comes when officers
completely disregard their purpose, lose sight of their
duty to the public and act with a recklessness unacceptable
for instruments of a sensible populace.
How does hassling a girl over an odd fashion choice
-- a light-up star on a sweatshirt mistaken for a bomb
-- serve the public?
How does using a concentration of officers to surround
a house party and hand out minor-in-possession-of-alcohol
tickets protect the public? Would that force better
serve public safety by monitoring the roads for drunk
drivers? Kids from that party, especially if they're
underage, don't want to draw any more attention to themselves
by driving. If they're not driving, how dangerous are
they?
And, how does Tasering a loud-mouth college student
trying to ask a question serve or protect the public?
College is an appropriate time to put your foot in
your mouth. It's a time when mistakes are made, stupid
things are said and crazy notions are explored. But
it's all a part of a process.
A process of figuring out the world.
A process of figuring out ourselves.
A process of figuring out where we fit in the world.
For society, it's a process pumping new blood into
the limbs of a public where pooling has occurred, creating
stagnancy and a loss of feeling.
But the negative attitude of officers toward students
yields overreactions that create a climate not conducive
to growth. It corners off a students' world, making
it a closed place, and facilitating the death of a circulatory
system that brings oxygen into a dying organism.
Law enforcement should remember the goal, to serve
and protect society. Making college students shirk back
into their shells, turning them toward the blind acceptance
of the status quo does nothing but stifle a process
of exploration and evaluation key to the healthy growth
of society.
NW
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