About 40 students gathered outside Witherspoon Hall early yesterday morning to protest alleged racially biased treatment of African-American students by both Public Safety and the Princeton Borough Police.
"The issue is to address the general treatment of students of color on campus by Public Safety," said Ashley Adams '02, who led the meeting. "We want to make a conscious effort to make sure that Public Safety protects the rights of black students as equally as white students."
Students at the gathering said the response was spurred by a recent incident involving a student who was falsely accused of brandishing a firearm. They said the wording of a campus alert issued following the event was discriminatory against African Americans, and questioned the protocol by which Public Safety and Borough Police conducted the investigation.
A "visitor to the Chancellor Green Rotunda" reported to Borough Police having seen an African-American male revealing a "chrome-plated hand gun" to his friends Friday afternoon, according to the campus alert posted across campus by Public Safety.
After an investigation by Borough Police and Public Safety, the handgun was determined to be a toy cap gun.
Crime Prevention Specialist Barry Weiser said in an interview yesterday afternoon that he was alarmed to hear about the students' accusations of biased treatment of African-American students. "I am surprised that of all groups, my group is being criticized in this way," Weiser said. "If any group is diversified on campus, it is Public Safety. We are usually very sensitive to everyone's issues."
Campus alert
The campus alert described the suspect as being in his "early 20s, 5'-10'' tall, short black wooly hair." It was posted Friday afternoon, shortly after the incident was reported, and was left posted after the incident had been resolved Saturday afternoon.
"The campus alert gave a vague description that implicated most black males on campus, and it was not taken down," Charles Nabrit '02 said at the gathering. "Black students would really like to see things like this changed."
Adams said she and other students who were at the gathering are planning to consolidate stories alleging mistreatment based on race into a record to present to University administrators including President Shapiro, Public Safety and the University community in a public dialogue.
Weiser defended Public Safety's response to the incident, noting also that a flyer announcing the gun was fake was posted shortly after Public Safety and Borough Police found a toy gun during a search of the student's room.
"There is somewhat of an urgency with a weapon to get notification up around campus. Our priority is to get the word out first — to inform and concern the student body," he said. "Our department always discusses and tries to analyze the wording of flyers. But if the description comes from other sources, such as from a witness or another police department, then we have to use it."
The students also addressed how the student was treated during the search. Once the person seen with the alleged firearm was identified as a particular University student, a Public Safety officer escorted Borough Police officers to the student's room, according to Weiser.
The officers allegedly did not identify themselves and told the student that if he did not allow them to search his room, he would be arrested, according to the student whose room was searched. The student asked not be identified.
At the gathering yesterday morning, Adams questioned Public Safety's response to the incident and the Borough Police's search. "It was an infringement of his rights, not protection, which Public Safety allowed to happen," she said.
Public Safety, however, has the right to enter student's rooms without permission in an emergency situation, according to Weiser. "If the Borough Police comes to us with a reason to enter a student's room, then we let them enter the room," he said. "There was urgency, and no one had reason to believe that the gun was not real."
Borough Police representatives were not available to discuss the case Sunday.
Additional efforts
Twenty students and Third World Center director Heddye Ducree met with three Public Safety officers at the TWC Saturday night to discuss the investigation of the incident. "Nothing was resolved, but it shed light that this incident goes into Public Safety's history of not respecting the rights of African- American students," Adams said.
At the gathering yesterday morning, several of the student leaders said they are going to continue their efforts to address the issue of racially motivated action on the part of Public Safety. They called for the rest of the University community to notify them of experiences in which Public Safety acted because of racial bias.
"Public Safety is here to protect us, not to harass us," Jameil Johnson '02 said at the rally. "I am here to learn and to get an education, not to be harassed."
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