A
student group at all-female Wellesley College has launched a new initiative
urging fellow students not to call the campus police for non-life-threatening
emergencies. Wellesley Against Mass Incarceration, or “WAMI,” also recently
launched a petition cleverly called a “pledge
not to call campus police.” Wellesley Against Mass Incarceration
co-president Rachael Labes (!) told the
campus paper Wellesley News that
group members “think it’s important for students to recognize that
calling the police should not be taken lightly. The police are dangerous,
specifically for black and Latinx students and those with mental illnesses.”
Labes also stated that the fact police are armed made students feel unsafe.
About 400 people have signed the petition thus far. Roughly forty percent of
the toney, Boston area college’s population of 2,300 are students of color.
Labes previously
told the News: “While this is a
project I’m really excited and passionate about, I also recognize that this is
a fight primarily for black lives and for racial justice, so I try to balance
that and be an ally to this cause.”
Let’s
analyze this: students are directed not to call campus cops in non-life-threatening “emergencies,”
because they may well have guns and are liable to get distracted and shoot
colored people for no apparent reason. However, the directive does not say not
to call them in life-threatening emergencies. Hmm. Perhaps they can actually
come in handy then, what with their weapons and all.
If I
was a black or Latinx student, and who’s
to say I’m not, I haven’t decided yet, I would call the hell out of the
police if someone was trying to harm me and I couldn’t handle it myself.
The
vast majority of police officers, be they black, white or Latinx, are dangerous
only to black, white, Latinx or mentally ill people who are dangerous to
others.
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