http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/opinion/charles-blow-at-yale-the-police-detained-my-son.html
Young man was held at gunpoint by campus police. That’s scary.
Apart from other questions, “nice” publicity for Yale. How many campus police officers at other schools carry guns? Can’t say that I’ve heard of this.
Yale has a real police force with sworn officers. I think the force is about 75. They have arrest powers and carry guns like any other police officers. Yale also has extensive security officer detail (over 200 I believe) who deal with lock outs, walk students home from the library at night and deal with other nuisance issues.
Having been at Yale from 78-82, I am somewhat disheartened to see some of the issues we dealt with as AA students continuing now. We had many a protest about how AA male students were being perceived and treated on campus. I did not know that my D would have to deal with this, but I am not naïve, the world is what it is.
Apparently, the student in question was wearing clothing similar to that in the description of the perp.
FWIW, the Yale police officer was also African-American.
I really can’t think of a reason why Yale would need 75 “real” police officers with guns.
I wasn’t aware that using guns in a suspect stop was now routine procedure.
I don’t have a problem with them carrying guns. I have a problem with them pointing guns at property-crime suspects without any reason to think the suspect is dangerous.
That works out to fewer than 25 on duty at any one time.
Don’t have a problem with the guns either. I’m glad they’re there to keep the campus safe.
I work in law enforcement. Don’t actually have a problem with this particular stop. Seemed like probable cause. However, let’s not think they don’t have some problems at Yale. It is part of the real world. They are proactive with dealing with them as they arise and I made sure I imparted my radical side into my D before she went there. Her HS was known for equality and it’s one of its founding principles. So she’s an advocate when she needs to be.
Have you visited the campus?
The city of New Haven is not safe at all. We should assume that Yale is capable of working out how many police it needs to deal with the actual security situation.
Why Yale needs “cops with guns” –
September 21 - Yale graduate student robbed at gunpoint at 8:30 PM (http://foxct.com/2014/09/21/attempted-robbery-at-yale/)
October 20 - Bank robbery less than 1/2 mile from campus at 2:30 PM (http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/10/20/police-investigate-webster-bank-robbery/)
November 11 - Yale undergraduate wakes up in middle of the night to burglary going on in his apartment (http://yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2014/11/11/genova-15-stops-robbery/)
November 21 - Packs of would-be criminals on bicycles harass Yale students (note that some of the earlier armed robberies were committed by folks on bicycles) - no specific incidents mentioned, but references several recent close calls (http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/11/21/bicyclists-introduce-new-form-of-robbery/)
January 15/16/17 - series of thefts from Yale campus dorm rooms (http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/01/21/series-of-thefts-unnerved-trumbull-students/)
January 20 - Three Yale undergraduates robbed at gunpoint at 6:30 PM (http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20150120/police-3-yale-students-robbed-at-gunpoint)
BTW, this was just a cursory search. And I didn’t go back prior to the 2014-2015 academic year.
Don’t get me wrong. Yale is a fantastic school and a great place. But I think it’s naive to suggest it shouldn’t have an armed police force.
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Whoa. Yale is no more dangerous than other urban schools. I see the fact that they have their own police department as a positive. Trust me. It’s better for the students to deal with officers who are paid to deal either them than to deal with city cops. They are able to keep control of a lot without bringing others into it. Now, I must admit that backfired in the area of sexual assaults and Yale is paying dearly for that misstep. But they are working on that and the Yale police must move allegations forward.
This rash of robberies is troubling since my freshman D is there. However, there’s been a rash of robberies here in DC. Life in the city.
Sorry, Tperry. Wasn’t trying to imply it was any more dangerous than any other similarly situated school. Just thought the folks who were suggesting that arming the police was excessive should better understand the context.
Hope your daughter is enjoying the snow!
That’s just terribly sad for that young man, who was simply walking home from the library, to have a gun pulled on him. It’s also a bit disingenuous to say he “matched the physical description of the suspect including articles of clothing”. Let me guess… young AA man in a hoodie and jeans? Or a sweatshirt and jeans? And they had to pull a gun on him?
I don’t blame his father for writing about it. He’s a writer and that is his power. I remember when Courtland Milloy (a WaPo columnist) wrote about his son being pulled over for DWB. Why should’t they write about it? How else would we know.
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That works out to fewer than 25 on duty at any one time.<<<
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Fewer indeed. A LOT fewer considering they are public servants who do not work 8 hours a day for 365 days. About ten at any one time might be closer to the real number after accounting for time off and benefits.
As to this particular incident, I hope people won’t jump to conclusions too rapidly. I don’t blame the young man’s father for doing so, though–that’s natural. It just happens that he has a bully pulpit at the New York Times. (I usually like his columns, by the way. He’s not a nut.)
I think it’s a very good question why the officer drew his gun. Since it appears that the student was cooperative, it’s hard to see why this was done. I’d also like to know just how closely he fit the description. If it was just that he was a tall African-American in dark clothes, then I have a problem. If he was wearing a red and white hat, as the suspect apparently was, then I have much less of a problem, at least with the stop.
I think the issue is, as the father says, that a drawn gun pointed at someone is one twitch away from death. There’s no taking back that bullet.
I agree. I have to say that I was really surprised to hear that a Yale police officer would draw his gun on somebody in a situation like this. I don’t remember hearing about such a thing before, either when I was there or while my kids have been there. (It may have happened, of course.) The only explanation I can come up with is that the department may have been very aggressively trying to catch this particular suspect because he was invading students’ rooms, including rooms with students in them. (I think they did catch him, or believe they did.)
With respect to general crime levels at Yale, it does seem that students there have a habit of propping open doors that would otherwise be locked, according to http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/01/25/after-thwarted-theft-attempt-in-trumbull-ypd-arrests-intruder/ .
Given that probably most of Yale’s students grew up in areas where the risk of crime is minimal and one could leave doors unlocked without thieves coming in, they may be bringing their security-naive habits into an environment where the risk of crime is too high to have habits like that.