On Monday, the centerpiece feature in the Ol’ Dirty was about the alleged under staffing of public safety on campus. There are 14 DPS officers and four sworn EPD officers – three officers and one sergeant – that cover the University campus. The feature highlights the administrations goal to create an official police department on campus. The article, of course, uses the Virginia Tech shootings for leverage.

The ODE followed this up with a article about rising bike theft on campus. Good. Great. Grand. Nice “unbiased” news reporting. Today, however, the Ol’ Dirty Editorial Board had this to say:

“The state should recognize the importance of providing adequate police on a campus of 20,000 and give the University the right to have a fully-functioning police department on campus.”

Is it too hard to understand that creating a full-fledged police force will increase violence on campus? A good majority of University students feel safe walking on campus at any time of the day or night as it is. Furthermore, most students don’t like police figures.

But hey, I say bring it on. It’s been a while since we’ve had a good ole fashioned riot. Let’s bring in a couple dozen ego-driven, trigger-happy authority figures who will eventually get on a power trip and mishandle a situation – and you know it will eventually happen – leading to serious abuse to a student or a group of students. Then, the students can retaliate by rioting and smashing the windows of the police cars. Then, the EPD can join the campus police to stop the surge with tear gas and rubber bullets. Then, more students will be outraged and join in the carnage. Then, the National Guard can be called in. By the end of it all, the scoreboard will be: 53 students hospitalized; 2 students dead; 2 officers hospitalized; $375,000 of damage; 2,780 broken or chipped teeth; 1 embarrassed University; and one hell of a bar tab at Rennie’s Landing. Trust me, my Magic 8-ball told me so.

Also, check out the illustration. It depicts the University campus as Gotham City. Ridiculous.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 12:40 by Ossie and is filed under Campus, Crime, Ol' Dirty Emerald. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.