Boston University students rejected a proposal to protest the Brookline Police Department’s alleged targeting of students who live in Brookline yesterday, instead opting to try to improve communication with the town’s permanent residents.
“This matter is currently the most pertinent issue that the Union is addressing, and where we are focusing our resources and efforts,” Student Union spokesman Brandon Epstein said in a statement. “Right now, we are asking the BU community for their trust.”
Union representatives and other BU students debated the issue yesterday at the inaugural meeting of Bring BU Back, a group not sanctioned by the Students Activities Office.
Epstein told The Daily Free Press the Union plans to send a member to the next Brookline Town Council meeting after the Union met with Captain John O’Leary of the Brookline police Tuesday.
“We’re going to have representation wherever we can have it,” Epstein said. “We want to let students know the Union is actively pursuing the matter and to urge them to join us in pursuit for continued dialogue with residents of Brookline.”
Bring BU Back also plans to send representation to the next meeting, said group spokeswoman Katie Geiss.
The College of Arts and Sciences senior said of the nine students at last night’s meeting, only one was a Brookline resident, but all were interested in taking more action against the alleged targeting of students. Geiss said she originally planned to protest this weekend, but the group decided not to act as a result of the Union’s advice.
She added some of the kids clearly “wanted to get rowdy,” though.
“We put a one-week hold on protests next week,” she said. “We want to raise consciousness with demonstrations, letters and just talking about it constantly.
“If nothing is changed by next weekend, we’re going to take a more aggressive approach,” Geiss added.
The protests would involve students sitting on their stoops on weekends in Brookline who were not intoxicated to see if Brookline police would take action against any of them.
“If they’re confronted by authorities and arrested, it’s a clear notion of an abuse of power,” she said. “They’re trying to scare students to behave, and it’s indicative of their police state as whole. To those in power – they are the law.”
“Anyone who fights will single-handeldly ruin the idea,” she added. “We’re showing there are responsible students outside of drunken fools. But arresting people on their cellphones — people that are innocent — it needs to stop.”