I came down last night because I heard there were cops eager to join in the Fountain festivities. Having not finished my final papers for senior year (let alone started one of them), I was at home working. What better way to take a break than to come down and see a faceoff between two of the dumbest groups of people I can possibly imagine, police and drunken Wesleyan students? Needless to say, I was quite entertained, even as a sober witness. After holding a friend of mine back from hitting an officer, whom he repeatedly called a “faggot,” I decided it was time to leave. This student was later arrested. Additionally, it seemed to be mostly juniors inciting this riot. Juniors, take it from me, this place will only get worse for you. You have one year to make this place fun, one senior year to throw parties in your woodframe, one year to keep the social scene alive. If all continues like this, soon we will become the Boston College of Connecticut, devoid of parties and drained of fun. You will start to see rules where people lose their housing for even throwing a party, no matter what street they live on, quiet house or not.
I have a little advice from an aging senior, someone who has seen firsthand four years of this school’s slow demise into nofunland:
KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT—There is no such thing as “My Constitutional Rights.” You are at a private institution. They can remove you if they do not like the color of your shirt. They can also videotape you if they wish, and then use that against you in an SJB. You can do more damage when people are calm and you are sober. Let’s try to make a difference going forward, not escalate situations while they are happening.
POLICE OFFICERS ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS—Don’t try to go up and put your arm around them or take pictures while they are trying to stop your friends from rioting. It’s like feeding the animals at the zoo, you only encourage them.
STAY CLASSY — Bottom line, you’re smarter than throwing bottles. You go to Wesleyan. Fine, you get drunk, but you still need to use your words. If the police don’t know how to do that (and that is quite evident at this point), then let them make their own mistakes. If they feel that they need a gun to do their work for them, just quietly walk away and think, “What would Freud say?”
DON’T GET AN IUI (interviewing under the influence)—You all look incredibly drunk on television. It was ridiculous. President Roth, you just looked tired, but were still right on point. Nice job.
YOU WERE NOT BRUTALIZED—You would know police brutality if you saw it, and definitely if you experienced it. You are insulting the memories of people like Rodney King who actually understand what this term means. Police can use tasers and pepper spray to clear an area if they deem it necessary. It is not your call. They have manuals and textbooks that they must abide by. What they did is probably allowed in them, you just don’t like it. So change the manual, because you can’t change what happened to you on Fountain Avenue.
Note to Police Officers and Public Safety Officers: All of the students left when you did. We just want to see how far you would go. You are a show, there for our personal entertainment. Next time, don’t show up and maybe we won’t either.
Note to the Administration: Why can’t the police force that you hire and employ to regulate students do that job? Are they afraid? This is a community; let’s deal with things within the community framework. We saw that a lot of the danger and violence came from the police, and the situation was escalated by their presence, so let’s remove them from the equation.
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