Activists at Portland State University Are Trying to Get Campus Police Disarmed
“claiming that the armed cops represented a significant danger on campus”
The school’s board of trustees is actually considering this measure.
The College Fix reports:
University trustees delay decision on whether or not to disarm campus police
Leaders at Portland State University have elected to delay a decision on whether or not campus police will be stripped of their weapons. Activists urged the university to disarm campus law enforcement, claiming that armed police are “dangerous.”
The school’s trustees said “they will take the summer to review the university’s campus safety plan,” OPB reports. The school’s interim president “said in a meeting…that students and faculty will have time to offer opinions on whether to disarm campus officers after they return to PSU in the fall.” There are reportedly “more than 100 recommendations” stemming from an independent review of the campus’s safety published last year.
According to KGW8, student protesters at that meeting demanded the immediate disarmament of campus police, claiming that the armed cops represented a significant danger on campus.
One said that armed police “are a ticking time bomb,” while another stated that police with guns are “dangerous,” citing an incident when campus police shot and killed an armed 45-year-old man last year. One witness said the man was simply trying to retrieve his dropped gun, while a forensic expert said the man was pointing his gun at police. A video footage analysis by The College Fix indicated the latter possibility.
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Comments
I say fine. Give them what they want. And that means everywhere on Campus. No special security for the university president. No security at board meetings. It will be a great year for “Apple picking”. And since most big city police departments don’t investigate property crimes any more, oh well. A “real” crime? Well, call 911 and maybe someone will roll by to see if you’re dead. Not a knock on Police, just reflecting reality — and I can’t imagine the Portland PD will prioritize calls to a hostile campus.
Portland itelf barely has a police department these days. Don’t even get me started on Chief Outlaw, her name, literally.
The president of the Portland police union has said that they are 120 officers short because of the “intense anti-police sentiment in our city, that city council seems to share.” He has called the city a “cesspool.”
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2018/07/portland_police_union_leader_s.html
In Portland’s environment of hatred toward the police, it was obvious that some of the student SJWs would try to eliminate their campus police departments. Disarming them in the potentially violent Portland environment will turn them into easy targets. That change would eliminate any effective campus policing, because any officer who doesn’t resign from the department will have to stay in the office and simply answer the telephone. Actually, I’m surprised that anyone would apply to be a cop in Portland or at Portland State. They probably only get applicants who can’t get jobs anywhere else.
I carried a badge and a gun for 29 years. Neither I nor any of the other officers were a danger to anyone except criminals. If I were told to turn in my gun, the badge would go with it. Being an unarmed cop seems like a stupid way to commit suicide.
I’ve never understood why universities have their own “police” in the first place. What’s so special about them? Why don’t the real police cover them just like any other business?
Response time for one thing. When minutes count, regular police often won’t show until after an assault or situation is already over.
Portland in particular – due to shortage of cops willing to work where they’re not wanted – make that a half hour after.
Then there’s money. Even if you posit no temper-tantrum protests by the student body – any major gathering from graduations to sports events requires security. You can either have your own at $20-$40 an hour, or contract for off-duty city police at hundreds of dollars an hour.
All of the colleges I’ve worked for only had private security – communications only and a hotline to local PD. I’m not sure if they carried so much as pepper spray.
I know that larger institutions, though, have sworn and armed officers for increased response time.
Part of me wants the PSU students to get what they wished for, but a larger part of me says, um, no. Let’s keep everyone safe. If that means armed officers, so be it.
Not only in Portland, but everywhere, police departments are short of applicants. My son is being courted by several departments in our area because they are desperate for officers, and we don’t even live in a socialist paradise like Portland – yet. I’m very proud that he wants to be a police officer.