LETTER: Bring Brookline, BU back together

In deep reflection of the current power struggle between the Brookline Police Department and Boston University students, I realize I may have underestimated the benefits of targeting, threatening and arresting innocent people in hopes of maintaining community order.

These reasons are as follows: 1. The Brookline PD will never be accused of discriminating by race, creed or gender during their patrols. Using age as their only factor, it is much easier to avoid pesky terms like “civil rights,” since today’s youth no longer fights for that sort of thing as it is.

2. We are finally given the opportunity to catch up on much-needed sleep — 24 whole hours of it! Jail, as we have all heard, is prime snoozing territory for even the meekest of wrongly detained scholars.

3. Our grandchildren will think we’re “with it” for having been arrested back in college.

4. Arrest is very fashionable today: Ask Paris Hilton and Michael Vick.

5. If we can come to accept the abuse of power at an early age, we will be comfortable with the future that we are passively paving.

But wait – clearly it is not just students who are being profiled. Upon researching crime statistics for the city, I realize that this preemptive method of patrolling must be used in other realms of Brookline’s crime prevention. For instance, murder is down 100 percent (not a single one). I have faith this number can be attributed to a constant monitoring and bullying of black males in the area. More good news: There has not been a single terrorist attack on Brookline soil this year! Perhaps this is because of steady police detail on the heels of Arab community members. Be advised: profiling is legal, BU students. It just doesn’t sit well in our stomachs when we’re walking home from Shaw’s.

All sarcasm aside, two friends and I decided to observe Pleasant and Egmont streets on Saturday night. It had become a ghost town. We sat on the sidewalk (sober) with a copy of the US Constitution and Brookline bylaws, sure that any minute we, too, would be asked to move along. Almost immediately, we were. But, once we made it clear that we were not breaking any rules, we remained, with the cozy companionship of several squad cars. There we sat, until about 2 a.m. when the chief kindly explained and dispelled rumors about recent arrests. The exchange was light hearted and respectful. Apparently, all of the freshly detained wolf-criers were indeed under the influence. Fair enough.

I want to assure the Brookline residents that we, as students, are not leading a fight for our right to party and urinate in the bushes. You see, even with legitimate arrests, the neighborhood is still suffering. The chief explained to us that increased patrolling will not stop until he sees Brookline as a community again. Now I’m no mayor, but last I checked, a community was not a place where its members felt embittered and cornered by those meant to protect them; it is not a place of barren streets; and it is not a place of a petty and polarizing cultural warfare between its members. It is a place of understanding and cooperation, and I have faith that we can build this community without the aid of Brookline police.

So no, the protest is not called off due to some imaginary war with the Student Union (as it has been publicized). Nor is it even a “protest” at all. It would be a respectful display of BU students: proud, involved and unwavering in defense of our natural rights. Brookline demands a better quality of life. It may be quiet now, but it has not improved – it has only flipped over from a party neighborhood to a police state. We, as students in the face of low morale, must say in all candor that until we can breathe on the streets again, we insist upon a better quality of life by all nonviolent and legal means at our disposal. We have a plan. Visit BringBUBack.com to help. Come to the meeting Wednesday night at 8 p.m. in the GSU Back Court. Keep your chin up, BU. It’ll get better.

Katie Geiss

CAS ’08

Bring BU Back