To the Editor:
Providence is, tragically, no stranger to police brutality. But Brown University? Here on campus? The Department of Public Safety? Something's gone seriously wrong, and the dialogue in these pages in the last week has been reaching for an answer.
I think we can agree that the problem isn't any kind of masochistic desire for victimization, as Sean Quigley '10 recently suggested ("No one knows what really happened Sunday," Sept. 15). While I'd certainly agree that Brown students are willing to protest anything and everything, a racially motivated act of police violence - if one indeed did occur - undoubtedly warrants the attention of protesters.
While the recent column by Dorothy Marcello '07 ("The sad reality of student-police relations," Sept. 15) doesn't quite offer a comprehensive response, the author inadvertently describes what I feel to be the true problem late in her article. She suggests that instead of carrying firearms, police should "track recently released violent criminals and sex offenders and ensure they do not come near Brown's campus."
The question that we really need to answer as a community is the following: to what degree do we believe it's the job of DPS to preempt crime and criminals?
Marcello's answer, it seems, would be a very high degree. This is a dangerous line to cross. When the police try to keep all prospective criminals at bay, they will be forced to play the odds, so to speak.
Tracking sex offenders is one instance of this; previous sex offenders are statistically more inclined to sexual violence. But in statistically significant - yet very unfortunate - respects, young African-American men are more prone to crime as well. It's not so far a leap, therefore, from tracking sex offenders to racial profiling.
We need to take a long, hard look at what we expect as a community from our campus police force. In my eyes, we ask too much of them. Certainly, they should respond in a responsible way to crimes that do take place. But to ask them to intercede, to stop potential criminals before they've attempted to commit a crime, crosses a line. Such a policy invites the kind of prejudiced thinking that could easily have led to the incidents with which we're dealing now.
William Guzzardi '09Sept. 19
