Comments on: New Permanent Public Safety Chief Chosen

By: Niedermeyer

Niedermeyer — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:21:20 +0000

I may have got to the bottom of this one, Tim. It seems that DPS employees are too busy posting to student media blogs to actually do their jobs. Check out the ODE story comment section, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. You may notice that all of the DPS insider comments are posted from UO computers between midnight and 5 a.m too. Good thing those DPS guys are so convincing, because I might be tempted to believe that they spend whole shifts at a time getting paid to post their crappy self justifications on student blogs. Except that they are such a dedicated team of professionals…

By: Timothy

Timothy — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:48:34 +0000

I wonder how Scalia’s “New Professionalism” will apply to DPS. My guess would be “not at all.” Look, DPS are glorified mall cops, do you want mall security chasing students around campus to “protect them” from “underage drinking” or whatever? They can’t even do a reasonably good job at keeping bikes from getting stolen, I don’t think giving them high voltage toys will do anything other than make them bigger incompetent dicks. And we all know that it doesn’t matter how big your dick is if it just hangs there, flaccid, looking pathetic.

By: niedermeyer

niedermeyer — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:21:27 +0000

Chris-
I’m fine with the fact that these developments don’t bother everybody. I guess I just don’t live with enough fear to see how making DPS a permanent police force and arming them with Tasers is worth it. To answer your question, I was referring to the eventual Tasing of a student whether the Tasing officer thought the student was committing a crime at the time or not. It’s not a scenario I see as likely to occur regularly, but then again I don’t see the UO campus as being under siege by violent criminals from whom our brave boys in blue need electrified protection. As you say, they barely use their pepper spray or batons (that we hear about), so why the need to ramp up their arsenal?

It is entirely in vogue for politics on all sides of the spectrum to be motivated by perceived “lack of safety,” both from the identity warriors of the left, and the police-state right. In this case, I simply don’t see the impetus for the considerable expense and opportunity for (marginally) less-than-lethal mistakes or abuses. Your only reassurance to anyone worried about Taser proliferation, Chris, is that “guidelines will be strictly enforced,” which is a roundabout way of saying that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 05:03:47 +0000

Just wondering out loud here, but when you mention the on campus tasing, are you referring to any person that has committed a crime on campus and is attempting to assault someone in order to get away, or just a student that happens to get tased for no reason? The only reason I ask is this is that DPS Officers carry batons and pepper spray every day, yet there is hardly any mention of Officers spraying or beating students or even the bad guy that comes onto campus for no reason. If you know of occasions where this has happened, I would like to know. The other thing is that IF DPS Officers get Tasers, the policies and guidelines would be strictly enforced. As added protection, all Tasers used by Police or other agencies have video cameras in them that record everything that happens, so that it can be reviewed after to determine if the tasing was necessary or excessive force. I believe that Williams will be able and more than willing to meet with student and faculty groups to help evryone understand what he is doing and why.