Power-hungry, uptight and repeatedly out of line, the University of Arizona Police Department has successfully created an ultra-paranoid student body and upped the presence of UA students in the Tucson City Court.
I got pulled over last week by two UAPD police cars at around 5 in the early evening. Apparently I had made an illegal u-turn on Cherry Avenue by the stadium. A “”no u-turn”” sign does not exist on Cherry Avenue.
The officer proceeded to ask where I was coming from, where I was going and how I knew the gentleman in the passenger seat next to me. He then held my license and registration hostage for a lengthy 10 minutes. Emergency lights on both police cars remained flashing as he and his fellow officer diligently reviewed my information, intermittently switching their focus to my car.
All the while, I knew I had dodged the unwarranted ticket, given that, “”No, you’re not getting a ticket,”” were the officer’s last words before commandeering my information. I understand there is standard procedure and such, but really?
Perhaps, in this particular officer’s opinion, I chose a sub-par location for my u-turn, but still, I didn’t violate any rules. But regardless of my annoyance with the whole charade, I still drove away fine free.
Not all UA students have been so lucky.
As some may have already heard, “”The University of Arizona Police Department will be deploying additional officers to enhance enforcement capabilities in alcohol, DUI and traffic laws in selected areas of the campus,”” according to the UAPD website.
Wonderful. As if the unreasonable drinking age isn’t enough reassurance of the government’s untamed desire to control us, here we are installing an entire additional set of officers for the sole purpose of nabbing underage drinkers on a college campus. Not a difficult feat.
Why, you might be asking, would the UAPD involve itself in such folly when Pima County recorded it’s 10th homicide in two weeks as of Monday, and the Arizona Daily Star crime map for Tucson, using red squares to symbolize assault, homicide, rape and robbery, looks like a bad case of the chicken pocks? Why not raise money for additional deployments concerning these issues to create a safer campus rather than a more paranoid one?
I don’t want to laugh in the face of authority and at its attempt to bring structure and so-called safety to our campus, but I do. Nudity, vomiting and any sort of belligerence on a public street warrants an MIP, but not a contained gathering of the moderately intoxicated and underage. A composed person holding a red cup, regardless of their assumed youth, should not stand as probable cause for an MIP.
Drunk, underage college students are as vital to this campus as bro tanks and uncoordinated bikers; without them, the entire equilibrium of the UA would be disturbed. So I beg you, UAPD— just let it be.
— Alexandra Bortnik is a creative writing junior. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
