While responding to a noise complaint on Home Ave. early Sunday morning, Middletown Police pepper-sprayed and arrested Jose Chapa ’07, and many students are now wondering why police arrived on the scene in the first place, and whether such force was necessary.

Chapa, a Mexican-American, was one of several dozen students on the street at the time. He was arrested and taken to the Middletown Police Station, then released on bail shortly after.

Around 1 a.m., Public Safety responded to a report of suspicious activity in the backyard of 73 Home Ave. When they arrived, they investigated, found nothing conclusive, but did determine that the party inside the house included more than 50 students, and that the house had violated University social event rules. They then attempted to end the party, and encouraged the students to disperse. Meanwhile, the Middletown Police Department (MPD), apparently responding to a noise complaint, dispatched a number of officers to the area.

Chapa was not at the party on 73 Home Ave., instead he and two other students were heading toward 63 Home Ave. He was holding an open bottle of beer, and as he and his friends crossed the street, a MPD officer approached them.

“A police officer gets out of his car and starts saying ‘hey pal, hey pal,’” Chapa said. “At first we didn’t realize he was talking to us.”

The officer asked Chapa to pour out the beer, and Chapa complied.

“At that point, I thought he was going to leave us alone, but he proceeded to grab my arm,” Chapa said.

“The officer started out the situation very aggressively,” said Rae Kaplan ’07, who was one of the students walking with Chapa.

Chapa began to demand that the officer let go of his arm. He tried to distance himself from the officer, but the officer pursued him further.

“And then he came after me, I felt threatened, and I didn’t know how to react, so that’s when I ran,” Chapa said.

Chapa ran to the porch of 63 Home Ave., where the officer tackled him. At that point, the other MPD officers present, as well as a number of University students, attracted by the commotion, convened on the scene. A number of the students then began yelling at the officers.

“More students came after they handcuffed him, and that’s when [the police] got more violent,” Kaplan said.

“They grabbed me, they handcuffed me, and slammed my face in the road,” Chapa said. “I was yelling, ‘please let me go.’ Then they pulled out the mace.”

Student witnesses report hearing the officers continually yelling and swearing at Chapa and other students.

“We give you a hundred breaks a year, and you just piss all over us,” one of the police officers, who identified himself as Officer Clark, said to the milling students.

According to witnesses, he also said there would no longer be any discretion given by the MPD to University parties. He did give students his badge number, when pressed.

Some students, Chapa included, wondered why Chapa was singled out, among all the other students on the street.

“I felt that they were specifically focusing on him, targeting him as a person among many on that street,” said Erin Moore ’07, who was also with Chapa at the time. “I noticed a difference in the way the officers spoke to me and Rae [Kaplan] in comparison to how they talked to Jose.”

In September, students raised concerns about racial profiling when Middletown police broke up a party on Fountain Ave. Students claimed that due to the large number of students of color at the party, the police used unnecessary force and made overly aggressive threats. At the time, Ujamaa, a student of color group, pledged to use the incident as inspiration to work together, raise awareness, and educate. But Ujamaa has not received the cooperation they envisioned.

“Honestly it’s been really difficult,” said Ujamaa co-Chair Jane Charles-Voltaire ’07. “We’ve been trying to schedule a meeting for the last semester and a half.”

Saturday’s incident was not the first student arrest to be subject to accusations of racial bias. On Oct. 8, 2000, Ray Dolphin ’01, an African-American, was pepper-sprayed and arrested when he did not comply with an officer’s order to leave the vicinity of 55 Oak St. According to an Argus article from Oct. 17, 2000, Dolphin was one of 20 students standing outside the house party. He was charged with interfering with a police officer.

The Middletown Police Department declined to comment for this article.