Pacified to Comply

I’ve had this feeling in me for a while. I thought it would go away and maybe things would get better, but instead it’s been growing and accumulating as each day progresses. I don’t know how other students feel about this matter, but the way we have been treated as a student body is staggering. I was brought up to know that cops mean safety, and that when you see a cop, then you’re in a safe area, and you can feel comfortable knowing that you have someone by your side to assist you if anything were to happen. Lately, I haven’t been seeing that, no matter who the kid is, if you’re walking down a street at night and you see a cop rolling past you, you begin to get nervous. You automatically think you’ve done something wrong, and it sets something off inside of you. It’s subtle, but you feel it, and every time you have a similar experience it grows If there’s one thing I know about communities, it’s that trust is key in developing and carrying on with everyday life. Every time we receive emails from the president of our school or a dean, we’re addressed as the student body or the PSU family, but it just doesn’t feel like a family to me anymore. Do we as a student body feel trusted when we walk down to the hub and see cop cars lining both sides of the street? Do you feel safe when there are more cops than kids toting billy clubs and paintballs guns with pepper spray? No longer can I walk down a street, see a cop and feel comfortable knowing that we have a lawful person on our side. I’m sure many of you have similar feelings, but don’t you feel like we’re being instigated? If all those cops are there then they are expecting us to do something. Should we meet their expectations? Is there even any way to change their minds about who we are? When the police prepare for our “riots” they prepare for war, and we are treated as the enemy. The lines, ladies and gentlemen have been drawn and they’re quite distinct if you look at a glance. We have been separated from the town, the locals, and most definitely from the law. Our rights quite simply have been stripped from us, all because of these so called “riots”. Yes, last year was a free for all, but now we’ve gone to the opposite extreme. From one extreme to another is quite the leap of faith if you ask me, and you can notice the difference. No longer can you walk down a street at night without any concerns, because we’re involved in this twisted dance we do with the cops. We walk down the streets in a mass quantity and they follow and “up-hold” the law. But this dance needs to end because the overall attitude of this college is changing. Anger is growing, and its not because of the Red Sox; the police presence at this school is creating an aggressive angst, which will only grow seeing as the police presence is getting more involved as the weeks go on. I feel as if we’ve been placed under lock-down, and each day I get a little bit angrier.Times like these make me question the stability of our PSU family. If we’re going to be recognized as a family we should be treated like one, and not like punk kids who are surely up to no good. If our facilitators don’t trust us, then what makes us want to trust them? Dick Hage (VP of student affairs) said in the last Clock issue, “If only we had celebrated a great victory with dignity.” But what of our dignity, Mr.Hage? The way I see it is we don’t have any dignity-surely the cops think that. And what of these so-called RIOTS! Were there riots on Wednesday night? The definition of riot taken from dictionary.com defines it as: “Debauchery. A violent disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled for a common purpose. An unrestrained outbreak”. Does that really sound like what happened Wednesday night? Not to me, no. Sure there were a bunch of people there, but the force used by the cops and their overall attitude towards us made me feel like I was knee deep in a civil war of sorts. We as a college need to stop going with the flow and start asking questions. What rights do you have? What rights do the cops have? Know your laws and don’t be afraid to stand up for what you believe in. This is a free country, right? Welcome folks to Police State Country, founded in 2004.