To the Editor:
It was with deep sadness that I witnessed the marchers protesting the supposed "police brutality" against Brown student Chipalo Street '06 GS on Tuesday. Upon reading the front-page article in The Herald on Wednesday, the sadness quickly morphed into utter confusion, imbued with occasional amusement over an incident rife with assumptions and overreactions. To me, Street is simply a Rodney King-wannabe, and I am eagerly awaiting a public statement asking, "Can we all get along?"
As I understand the situation, Street was asked for his Brown ID and refused to show it. After that, there is much dispute as to what took place. Only Street and the policemen involved know what really happened, and the justice system will determine who has more credibility.
Snotty Brown students foaming at the mouth for a cause in which they can "fight the man" do not know the full extent of the events that transpired this past Sunday morning, just as I do not know. All that Street had to do was sound the racist police brutality bell, andlike Pavlov's dogs, my fellow students salivated at the chance to make a victim out of someone.
Students like Theresa McGowan '08 and Kai Morrison '07 were among the jackals at the head of the pack, and their obtuse statements are merely a microcosm of the simpleminded reduction that has characterized this entire incident. Do they have a Deep Throat source that witnessed the entire incident but only reports to them? Such questions are almost as comical as the "cause" that these protestors so vehemently champion.
What I see here is another attempt to victimize a minority regardless of the circumstances - even when there exists the real possibility that Street's insubordination was entirely responsible for the incident. If the police did, in fact, use excessive force, then I hope that those officers endure the full extent of the law. Yet if this is, as I suspect, an instance of playing the race card so as to promulgate the bizarre idea that institutional racism still exists, I hope that these protestors put bandages over their mouths.
Sean Quigley '10 Sept. 13
