Dallas cops violating civil rights

I know this is supposed to be a free country. I know we shouldbe allowed to go outside and know that if someone harms us, we cancall 9-1-1. And I know that the police are the ones that aresupposed to be protecting us from harm. So, what does one do whenthey are harmed by the police?

I woke up by a phone call last Sunday morning from a friend ofmine. The first-year theatre student here at SMU was upset andshaken.

She told me she was picked up and taken to jail the previousday. She spent 13 hours in a cell for the crime of . . . well thefact is that she was not committing a crime at all.

She was only walking down Greenville Avenue when a police carrolled up to her and an officer asked her who she was and what shewas doing. She told the officer her name and that she was astudent. She did not have her ID, so the cop immediately assumedthat she was withholding information.

Now, if the cop said, “OK, have a nice day” or evenjust “be careful on these streets” everything wouldhave been OK.

Then there would be no need for this article, but the copcontinued the interrogation. This friend of mine politely respondedto the police official that she was a college student and taking awalk, but this cop merely wrote her off as a liar.

The dialogue went from question by the police, answer by thisgirl; then disbelief and yet more questions from the cop continueduntil two more police cars arrived.

This is utterly unbelievable to have an innocent personquestioned and accused in such a fashion.

So, this girl, who was just minding her own business and takinga walk in the morning, was taken to jail on assumptions that shewas possibly a runaway, a prostitute without doubt in thecops’ mind that she was a liar.

After telling these cops again who she was, more exasperated,one cop remarked to the other, “Do you believe her? Idon’t.” Then, telling her, “You have two choices,you can tell us the truth or we can take you down to thestation.”

She made one final attempt to clarify her identity and evenstated that she had a friend a block away on Richard Street thatcould vouch for her. The officers refused her that right to proveherself innocent and still refused to believe her.

I would be embarrassed to be on the same police force as thosewho feel the need to exercise their power because they canintimidate others.

After pleading with the cops, they handcuffed her and broughther in, stripped searched her for track marks, checked her hair fordrugs and took blood samples.

She was taken to jail at 8 a.m., was put in a cell with a groupof other women, while continuously questioning why she was in therein the first place. She was helpless against the authorities. Herparents had to call from Seattle to verify to the cops that she wasa first-year SMU student and not a felon.

The police justified her being locked up to the fact that shewas jaywalking! Ridiculous. This astounds me. Would this occurelsewhere?

How about the people who are racially or otherwise profiledeveryday?

Taking people to jail because they “fit” a certainlook is wrong.

This brings me to my conclusion that we are not safe. The peopleprotecting our safety are the one’s taking innocent people tojail.

I mean, come on, what if you took a walk and were taken to jail?You were out early, so you must be a prostitute; you are slender soyou must be a hungry runaway.

Please tell me I am not the only one that sees that there issomething terribly wrong here. There needs to be some action takenand this should not go unrecognized.

I urge students, faculty and staff at SMU to become involved andlet it be known that we will not tolerate these infringements onour civil rights.