Last month, I penned a column in which I argued the laissez-faire law enforcement approach to events such as Block Party reveals an inequality in the way students and local residents are treated by police officers. The purpose of the column was not to offer a solution to police behavior and bias — that would be quite a tall order — but to highlight a disparity that has received little commentary by Cavalier Daily writers and the student population at large, perhaps because we are all beneficiaries of the benefits attending the University confers. In this column, I aim to suggest steps the University and local police should take in order to support more equitable law enforcement in our community.
We as students may not have the power to effectuate change within local law enforcement systems. But we can use our resources to make other members of the community safer by making them more aware of their legal rights when encountering police officers. Last year, Commerce Prof. Sherri Moore hosted a “Know Your Rights” lecture in conjunction with Student Council, speaking to students about how they can prevent police officers from taking advantage of them. According to Moore, interactions between college-aged people and police officers are inherently asymmetric, especially when students are unaware of their legal rights.
In low-income parts of Charlottesville, interactions between community members and police officers are also inherently asymmetric due to racial, socioeconomic or educational differences. Given that students already receive a fair amount of latitude when dealing with local law enforcement, there should be public education aimed at less advantaged community members who are not as privileged as University students. A series of events organized by students with speakers who are legal experts such as Prof. Moore would address part of the problem of unequal law enforcement. We have the resources to learn what our rights are during police interactions, and because not everyone has that access, we have an obligation to make those resources available to others.
I suspect some readers of this column will perceive this proposal to be problematic because it may imply University students with savior complexes feel they need to educate less privileged Charlottesville residents about their legal rights. But the reality is that we have great academic resources and experts such as Prof. Moore at this school. As a University, we benefit from the resources Charlottesville offers us as students. We should absolutely turn outward and share our resources with Charlottesville.
Ultimately, implementation of changes to local law enforcement is much harder to achieve for us as students, so we should first turn our efforts to bringing our University resources to the rest of the community. An open forum in the city where speakers such as Moore share information about police interactions would help those who don’t have access to University resources understand what their rights are in dealing with local law enforcement.
Nazar Aljassar is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at n.aljassar@cavalierdaily.com.
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