Well, from friends and classmates, I’ve gotten a pretty good reception to my article, “Call the cops.” The consensus view is that people have had the same experiences with our police department. This is somewhat alarming to me. It should be a matter of concern in our community when our relationship and perception of our police force are this poor. I had people write in with their experiences, and I’ve decided to print them to show that bad treatment by our police force is not an isolated incident.Kristin, second-year grad student here, wrote in with her story:
“I’ve been puzzling over the police in this town for a while now. I’ve been pulled over multiple times, not while speeding or violating anything, just to ‘check things out.’
“I was in a wreck recently and had a tail light broken. I understand them pulling me over for that, but the officer was incredibly rude and didn’t want to believe that I had no other way to get around, that the truck would be in the shop the next day, etc. I was then pulled over two days later in the rental vehicle (while the offending truck was in the shop). I am still not sure why he pulled me over – something about the tag, even though it said ‘enterprise rentals’ clear as day. I just happened to have the rental agreement with me, but he acted like I had stolen it and was very hostile about the whole thing until I pulled the agreement out. I guess then he figured he didn’t have any ground to stand on – the entire way he acted changed, and he told me to go ahead on. Enterprise said the tag on that rental was the standard tag, there was nothing wrong with it, and I shouldn’t have been pulled over.
“I’ve also tried to get help from the police with large dogs running in the middle of Miss. Highway 12 on a really rainy night, and they didn’t bother to show up after I’d called several times. Personally, I’d like to see the dog helped, but even from a point of view without the animal included, large dogs, rain and vehicles don’t mesh. There were several near misses while I was standing there trying to coax the dog out of the road. Avoiding an accident seems like something they’d want to do. Besides the fact if you tell someone you’ll come help them, you ought to show up. That’s just common courtesy.
“I’ve only had one policeman be friendly and polite while up here (he responded to an accident I witnessed). He was very nice, patient and honestly seemed to care about what happened. His partner, however, was rude and couldn’t have cared less about the whole thing.
“I’m not sure why they decide to keep pulling me over when I am not speeding or driving recklessly. I have all the respect in the world for policeman, they are a crucial part of our society, and I realize they have to be cautious. I don’t expect to have a long discussion or anything, but basic manners would be nice, or even just explaining why they’re pulling you over and not screaming at you from the start of the conversation.
“I guess they deal with enough college students acting like idiots to be jaded somewhat, but I’ve never been arrested or in trouble, I don’t talk back or act like a jerk to them when they walk up to me, and I’ve never been uncooperative. I don’t think it’s quite fair to lump us all together. We aren’t all out getting drunk every night and running rampant through the streets. I don’t think it’s out of line to be treated with the same respect I give them.”
Her story is like so many others that I heard from people who responded to my last article. Another student, senior Nathan Butler, wrote in with his story. I can relate to Nathan’s story because I lived in the exact apartment building that he talks about:
“I had a similar experience with a rude officer about a month ago. I live on Jarnigan Street in the Cotton District, a one-way street that is notorious for having two-way traffic. My apartment is roughly 15 feet from Lummus Street, the starting point for the one-way area. I returned from class about 10:30 a.m. and entered into the one-way (after making sure there was no oncoming traffic), as I and others have done for the past two years.
“Once I had pulled into my parking lot and was getting out of my car, I saw blue lights and a siren (c’mon now, a siren). The officer got out and told me I went up a one-way street, and he needed to see my license and insurance card. When I tried to plea my case by asking the officer to ‘cut me some slack,’ he then rudely and sternly raised his voice and told me to ‘get back in my vehicle.’
“I know that officers have a lot on their plate, but yelling at a civilian in the parking lot of their residence at 10:30 on a Monday morning has to be a sign of boredom among officers. He could have easily let me off with a warning, but I’m sure he is more worried about his quota. I enjoyed the article by David Breland, and I also have had or heard of similar experiences with the Starkville PD.”
Moreover, Nathan said that he “had or heard of similar experiences with the Starkville Police Department.”
So, because of the response from the students, I am going to continue looking into this issue. Please, continue to send in your stories. Perhaps with a small amount of concern shown by the student body, we can show that we care about police officers and respect them, but we also desire to be respected, not as students but as citizens.
Also, at time of print, neither the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office or the Starkville Police Department had replied to efforts for an official response on this series of stories. However, this could be due to possible schedule conflicts, and I will continue to contact these departments and report their comments in future articles.