(Updated: Originally posted December 12, 2006)
The police state is not far away. No more "ZooMass," huh?
"Police walk the dorm beat; Stepped-up presence at UMass raises tensions over privacy" by James Vaznis/Boston Globe December 12, 2006
AMHERST -- Two University of Massachusetts police officers sniffed the air as they walked the seventh-floor corridor of Washington Hall, a 22-story dormitory. As the smell of freshly-burned marijuana thickened, the officers stopped at individual doors, nearly pressing their noses to the cracks.
Finally, they located the suspected room and knocked.
The officers were conducting a routine nightly dorm patrol, a controversial new practice and part of an expanded police presence on campus. More than 325 surveillance cameras track movements of students and visitors at the entrances to all 45 residence halls and in some areas of the most problematic halls. Three K-9 teams troll for drugs, and 30 student police cadets radio to police when they spot trouble.
Today, a group of UMass students, some of whom say the campus has become a police state, will hold a rally to call for removing police from dorms. More than 2,000 students have signed petitions protesting the dorm patrols, and top student leaders say they believe the university has gone too far by letting campus police roam the dorms.
Here are some of students' opinions:
Elvis Mendez, president of the Student Government Association at UMass, who lives at Washington Hall, a dorm that has been frequently patrolled:
"It really infringes upon students' individual rights if they feel like they are being monitored. We want to make sure students feel like this is their home."
Jordan Grinstein, of Ashby, a sophomore majoring in biochemistry:
"This used to be the land of the free.
Justin Sawyer, one of the UMass Cannabis Reform Coalition presidents, a student group that supports the legalization of marijuana and is sponsoring the rally, said his group has received complaints from students that undercover police officers have posed as pizza delivery people to persuade students to open their dorm doors:
"It's like a police state. [Police] are creating a culture of fear and paranoia."
Lauren Bishop, 18, a freshman biology major from Rutland, supports the university's increased police presence:
"It's nice to go to sleep in a dorm that's secure."
Yeah, until they bust down the wrong door and it is you!
Like the grandma in Atlanta, et al, in Boston and New York City?
What has happened to America?
Where is the brave, fearless American public that can beat any challenge?
Why are we all a bunch of cowering, sniveling little cowards who are accepting the EVISCERATION of our BILL of RIGHTS?
