Officer YouKnowWho

I would bet that most students under age of 25 are very aware of the police practices surrounding them. At any age, for that matter, most people are generally familiar with the local police force. Often times, we even learn the names and faces of officers. For whatever reason, a cop earns a dash of "celebrity status" simply because of the nature of his work. The fact that an officer is likely to be front and center during big moments in the community also attributes to his or her notoriety.

Ideally, a hero will be created in a daring of act of bravery. Officer YouKnowWho comes around the corner in the heat of a hostage situation and subdues a criminal flawlessly all thanks to impeccable academy training. He smiles for the camera and claims it's "all in a day's work." Next, our hero would be seen from the ghetto. This officer of justice drives through the streets hauling away drug runners, pimps, prostitutes and even the occaisional young hoodlum carrying a blunt and can of spray paint. The young hoodlum would get a motivational speech from our hero which would forever change his life, prompting the youth to do his homework, pick up a basketball, or even volunteer at the elderly center. This is what we expect from our law enforcement.

Realistically, we should see that cops are human. They probably don't love going to work everyday. What they do love, however, is appearing to be cops. And what better way to look like a cop than making sure your police log is full of activity. So they find the easy stuff like traffic violations, parking tickets, and teenage loiterers.

What aggravates me the most, is the amount of actual crime in Fitchburg, that city cops are afraid of. Not even that they're afraid, I don't think they want to go through the effort it would take to stop drug dealers and gangs that exist all throughout the city. It's so much easier for a cop to drive around in his cruiser with the window down and listen for a party. The cops know where we party at FSC. It's not a big school so there's no more than 15 apartment where FSC students dwell. How much easier is it for a cop to walk into a house full of college kids trying to hang out with their friends and arrest the kids that live there. All they have to say is that they were "disturbing the peace." At least, that's the count that my roommate and I were charged on. (I'll tell that story another day.)

Why would a cop want to spend some hours on foot in front of the ghetto? With the prostitutes, and gang members with guns? They search FSC students on the spot on a weekend night. (Well, the ones with backpacks.) The kids with backpacks get ID'd on the street, and if the student isn't 21 years old, the backpack gets searched. Why can't they do this on to the gang members on Green Street? Because they're scared of doing some real cop work, and as long as they're slapping the cuffs on someone, they'll look like cops.

Would this happen at any Ivy League school? Of course not. Why? Because these cops would run into a few "my dad's a lawyer" situations, and they'd be fucked for wrongful arrests. I go to a state school. You think anyone of my peers has the money to hire a lawyer and fight a "disturbing the peace" charge? They can barely pay for books.

So keep it up, Officer YouKnowWho. You look great.

Early birds

I drove home from eating dinner at about 6:30 today. There was a FPD officer on the corner of Pearl Street and North Street. ................. Did I mention it was 6:30? They were already out and about, ready to check bookbags.

Most Recent Issue

At about 2:30 on Friday morning I was in my living room playing Xbox Live. My roommate was in the dining room listening to the messages on his cell phone. The lights were off. Out of nowhere, my roommate and I hear the front door open up. We assume it must be our third roommate, or even a mutual friend. From my seat on the couch, I cannot see the door, so I wait to see what my roommate says. However, from my seat on the couch, I can see a beam of light from a flashlight peering around our home. It turns out, two police officers took it upon themselves to open our front door and let themselves in.
"Where's the noise coming from?" says cop number 1. I look at him like he has 8 heads growing out of his neck. And then I look around the room that I'm sitting in. For a moment, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and physically twisted around in my seat searching for the noise he was talking about. Thankfully, I wasn't going too crazy, the room was still empty.
I reply to him "Uh................" Followed by awkard silence. I look at my roommate. He looks back and shrugs. Dumbfounded. More awkard silence.
"There are tenants that live upstairs on the second floor. And on the third floor." It was all the response I could muster. I was completely caught off guard by the presense of two cops in my home. He looks at me and points his flashlight to the ceiling.
"You don't hear that noise?" blurts the cops in a "you must be deaf" sort of way. I look at the ceiling and tell him plainly, "...........No. I didn't even notice." He follows with another question.
"Well how do you get upstairs?" he asks.
"There's a doorbell for the 2nd and 3rd floors outside," I respond. The officer refutes me.
"Well there's gotta be some sort of back entrance to get there." He motions to the back of my house with his flashlight.
"Well yeah, but all you have to do is ring the doorbell. They'll come down and let you in." I'm practically spoonfeeding him his own protocol at this point. Again, he refutes my point.
"Where's the back stairwell? There's gotta be a back stairwell." Finally my roommate interjects.
"Officers, I don't mean to be rude. But it's not really our position to let you up those stairs. We use them [the stairs] every once in a while, but my roommate already told you guys how to get upstairs. We're not trying to cause any problems. We just don't feel right doing it."
At this point, the officers realized the situation. But not before peering around our apartment once more with flashlights ablazing. Like any professional employee of the state, one of the officers makes sure to leave us with a comment to think about as he exits.
"It doesn't matter. We're just gonna tell them that you guys called in the noise complaint anyway." More awkward silence. Dumbfounded. Stunned. Awestruck. Violated. Paralyzed by absurdity. We didn't know what to feel.

How can they get away with this? This story was not fabricated (nor did it need to be) in any way. When I told my friends about this, we started to brainstorm about all the things wrong with that situation. A boatload of "What if" scenarios were discovered.
1.) What if you were having sex with your girlfriend?
2.) What if you smoking pot?
3.) What if you were sleeping?
4.) What if you were just cleaning the house naked for no reason?

Although some of the "What if" scenarios were absurd, they are all still plausible, and very embarrassing. What is going to have to happen for college kids to have their right as a homeowner enforced?