Everyone knows that college-aged kids do stupid things from time to time. Ten people, including several Boston University students, proved that to be true on Saturday morning, when they were arrested in Allston for disorderly conduct and drinking alcohol in public.
The arrests came just hours after Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore sent an email to all students regarding safety, in which he stated that both the Boston and Boston University Police Departments would be sending extra patrols to the Allston area in response to recent incidents of violence.
Obviously, if someone is engaging in underage drinking in the street in an area that is known to be filled with police, that person is asking for trouble. There is no excuse for blatantly disregarding the law in public and these students should have known better if they are guilty. But that being said, it does seem as though BPD is simply trying to make an example out of these students.
On any given weekend night, the Allston streets are flooded with drunken underage students, most of whom are never penalized. And even though the students in question were drinking in public, as opposed to merely being drunk in public, it still makes sense that the police would have given them a warning rather than immediately arresting them for what seems like a minor offense. Additionally, the offenders' names were posted online on the BPD news blog, so that with a simple Google search all future employers can see the results of one night of bad decisions.
Clearly the students made a mistake. But the police department completely overreacted in their mission to send a message to students in the Boston area. Encountering drunken college students in Allston on a Friday night is certainly not a rarity, and if the police don't do anything about it the vast majority of the time, then they should not deem it necessary to take a student's mug shot for having too much of a good time.
Because of the timing of the arrests, it seems as though the police only enforce the law after violent incidents in order to prove a point. Instead of making an example of a few students, the BPD should make its policies more consistent with regard to whom it arrests and under what circumstances. And as for students &- be smart and don't break the law in public just because you think you can get away with it.
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