In 2001, two DPS officers violently arrested two students of color for refusing to show their IDs while they were crossing the Main Green on Brown's "open campus." This spring, a DPS officer shoved the victim of a hate crime when the victim ran toward him for help. Rather than openly reviewing police misconduct, the administration pushes such acts of police brutality and racial profiling under the carpet. Qualms about racial profiling are conveniently dismissed as trivial misunderstandings. Director of Institutional Diversity Brenda Allen said, "If (DPS is) responding to calls about a group of students of color, is it the officers who are engaging in profiling or are they just responding to a call?" The administration consistently drums into us the benefits of militarization on campus.
The Herald also reported that DPS "are also trained in skills geared toward avoiding the use of force. Specifically, the skills taught are "verbal judo" and Kingian non-violence, a negotiating technique that uses the methods of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr ..." In the aftermath of abuse, the mistrust students have toward mishandling of power by DPS cannot simply be appeased by the adoption of "verbal judo" or "Kingian non-violence" tactics. Ironically, "Kingian non-violence" was employed initially as a mode of resistance by oppressed people against state violence and racism. The administration's encouragement of non-violence methods, while actively implementing the militarization of this campus reflects a confused stance and a double standard. Who are the "criminals" at Brown who will deserve the non-violent tactics, and which of those will have guns pointed at them?
The administration stresses often that arming the Brown police ensures the safety of students. Yet preemptive militarization, which makes offense a form of defense, never results in safer conditions. The resulting climate of fear and suspicion serves only to promote a further escalation of violence. The "crimes" administrators hope to reduce also seem limited to those that involve some kind of armed robbery, where vulnerable Brown students are targeted by the violent and armed non-Brown "Other." Other forms of violence that occur within Brown, such as sexual assault and hate crimes, are not met with similar zeal by the administration.
To date, despite constant requests from students, there are no accessible sexual assault or hate crime protocols that will encourage victims to report and hold perpetrators accountable. Rather than breaking down this divide between Brown as an elite institution and the rest of Providence, the administration perpetuates it through its decision to arm DPS. The disregard of the impact arming will have on the lives of other Providence residents who live in the vicinity of Brown's "open campus" is reflected by the administration's flagrant disregard of Mayor David Cicilline's '83 and Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal's opposition to arming. This isolationist mentality is again reflected in the administration's decision to arm DPS as a more benign alternative to local police. Rather than engage earnestly in community efforts to hold local police more accountable through the Providence External Review Authority, Brown decides to arm DPS to reduce its reliance on what is deemed to be the more oppressive local police force.
Guns need targets. And most often, these targets will be those who fit the stereotypical image of "criminal." The administration needs to stop arming now and take constructive steps to make us all safer.
Jane Mee Wong '06.5 is at the end of her rope.
