COMMUNITY
Campus area an edgy locale for regulars, police
Frequenters of campus claim
police harassment, brutality
By Gernt Koeppmg
Emerald Ho(vx!<j<
Tlir peoplo who hang
around the ( amp us area
have stories to loll. A lot of
those stories aro about the?
Eugene Police Department,
which lias an Imago prob
lem. to put it mildly
Reporter’s
Notebook
I spent Friday and Satur
day night talking with the
young people who hang out
on the edges of i ampu.s 1
heard many stories, u lot of
them involving harassment,
intimidation, racial discrimi
nation. police brutality and
(also arrest.
Out of these stories arose
one universal theme If you
look different you are going
to Ih* targeted for special at
tention from Eugene's finest
For instance, take a group
id skinheads and punks that
i talked to two men and
four women who hung
out at Idth Avenue and Kin
caid Street, across from Tay
lor’s College Side Inn Their
average age was around 17,
their clothes were not the
latest fashions but were
clean and well-kept, and
they horsed around like any
group of teenagers
They had nowhere else to
go, so they were forced to
hang out near the campus,
but ikicauso they look differ
ent from students they aro
singled out for attention,
they said
"If we were wearing hods
and Espirit shirts they
wouldn't bother us," said
Emily, a member of tile
group
They complained bitterly
of constant surveillance ami
occasional harassment To
illustrate their point: 20
minutes into the interview, .1
poin t; ofIIcor pulled up to
tho group. (or no apparent
reason, and asked if the
group planned to lie violent
that evening They said they
didn't plan to be
Moreover, during the hall
hour I interviewed them,
they w ere 00 n sI a n11 y
watched by at least one
[larked srpiad car
Some of thorn also com
plained of police brutality.
One young man, who asked
to ho identified as Skunk,
said he was arrested lor cut
few violation while he was
'There’s a lot of
cops that come
off with this
attitude that
we’re all shit,
something that
needs to be
scraped off the
boot of society.’
Cody Yarbrough
on LSD
After the police deter
mined he was on LSI) he
was taken to Suited Heart
General Hospital and hand
cuffed to a gurney, ho said.
"I started giggling for no nsrl
rejson and this cop gets
pissed off and gratis rno by
tho hair and slants the back
of my head against the wall
and then ho punches me in
the chest."
In addition to general ha
rassment, some spoke of ha
rassment of a racial nature
Kano Allah-Muhh am had,
Turn to PUBLIC. Page 7
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Looking at college from behind the badge
By Colleen Pohhg
i.rru'vf a:d R6POft'Of
! w ,is ( onvlnced that every las! (.up vs as ,1 rac ist,
fascist, power-hungry idiot who preyed oil the
pi or and the weak and. of course, on college
kids Then, las! Friday night found me riding
Reporter’s Notebook
around campus in the front seat of one of those
shiny, brand new "Kobo-Cop" police cars, and
what I --aw in the course of the nine hour ride
was no movie
i began the adventure in Eugene Police Sgt.
Cue ( -stanza's car and didn't see muc h action
iin i,unpus until after <1 p m
While driving, (..istanza explaim il to me why,
since the weekend ol the'-U.SC game (the lirst
weekend .liter the start ol school), Eugene polic e
had ciouhled tile amount of officers patrolling the
c ampus arc a As most people know, that weekend
was full ol violent crimes that kept the officers on
their toes
We started noticing .in attitude rigid when the
students lid town," Costanza said as lie drove
around the i ampus area in an unmarked car
"They seemed very insolent There seems to he a
i hanging rapport and u large numlier ol students
seem to l>e looking for a confrontation
"I don't know what they are mad at tile
world, tile University but the police tend to re
c eivc the negative gulf from people when they are
frustrated by the government." Costanza said.
"When something happens from police impropri
eties, such as the Rodney King incident in L A .
we are the ones people can see and get their
hands on. so we tend to receive that kind of treat
ment "
being a student, I had my own answers about
why it was so much "fun" to hate cops For one,
it is the norm Secondly, cops are the ultimate
sign ol authority and who likes authority? And
finally, it's so much easier to blame someonu else
for your mistake than to actually admit that you
screwed up.
Costanza agreed all those were probably fac
tors
One thing is for sure I have never heard as
ninny "fucking pigs" comments in my life
C.istanza had to meet another police oilic er at The
Mission Mexican Restaurant, and as we were
merely walking to the table, this comment, com
ing from several different students’ mouths, was
definitely meant to he heard by more people than
their friends
Once at the table, Castanza asked il I had heard
the comments and proceeded to toll me that it
was not unusual they hear il all the time
W hat a pleasant job
Around 9 p in I switched cars and rode the rest
11f Officer Linda Fischer's shift until •! am, which
in,uii? gutting up at 7 am. lor my geology field trip
out of the question.
Anyway. I-isher, otherw ise known as "Officer
Lriendlv" on campus, is one of female officers
on the force Any question about her success or
failure .is a female police officer should slop right
here she could kick just about every guv's be
hind I know
from the minute I got into the racy police car.
the action started
Three fraternity guys walking down the side
w ;ik. one holding a cup, spotted the cop car The
g i\ with the crip threw it and kept walking.
l-iv her slammed on the brakes and cited the
guv for a minor in possession of alcohol. Fisher,
getting back itr the car, was surprised to find hint
.cooperative and polite.
"That's very rare," she said as she drove away
"Most of tiie time, you get a student lying to you,
saving that no. you did not see me throwing that
i up Ninety sev en percent of the tilings vve hear
are not true, so when the other d percent are tell
ing tiie truth, they don’t get the benefit of the
doubt."
Our next call led us to arresting a homeless
woman who was sleeping in tiie hall of an apart
ment complex She was arrested because she had
gotten a tii bet earlier licit day lor sleeping in the
same building and the student who called the po
lice warded her arrested
My former misconceptions ol all cops treating
the homeless like dirt, were just that misconcep
tions lire officers were nothing hut polite and it
turned out that although jail is definitely not the
Hilton, the woman hud a warm place to stay for
the night
Next Fisher arrested a former Oregon State Uni
versity football player because there was a war
rant out for his arrest We look him to jail all the
while listening to, "You fucking ruined my week
end, hitch that's the last time I say hi to you on
liiu street.
I admit I never used to say, "Hey, how's it go
ing7" to any cop before, but it was a real eye
opener to see only glares and hear "fucking pig"
comments all night.
Our next mission led us to responding to a
noise pollution call at the Sigma Chi fraternity
Fisher talked to tiie president and issued him a
i itation for loud music, the second given in a
week
"lie was pleasant,” she said as we were walk
ing liar k to the car "A lot of the hats aren't Peo
ple think we're here to break up their party 1
have so many bettor tilings to do titan crush your
party.
Turn to PATROL, Page 7
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