The Badger Herald: News: Calling all cars: Police miss equality alliance discussion

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Calling all cars: Police miss equality alliance discussion

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Also by Logan Jaffe:

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By Logan Jaffe
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 12:00 a.m.

5 Vote 0 Votes

University of Wisconsin police failed to attend a meeting Tuesday to discuss future planning of Union events, after a September incident sparked a local fraternity to accuse the department of racial profiling. Lambda Theta Phi Latin attempted to host an event to celebrate the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month and Mexican Independence Day Sept. 15, but it was canceled due to claims of possible crowd-control issues by the UWPD. Lambda Theta Phi national officials accused university police of racial profiling and said the party was canceled because of the type of music event organizers intended to play. UW’s Alliance for Programming Equality, an organization formed by representatives from several student organizations, said UWPD has treated hip-hop-based events differently during planning stages of Wisconsin Union event. APE has planned to initiate a new procedure to approve union events, but has been unable to meet with police. The group waited without result for UWPD Lieutenant Bill Larson and one other officer to discuss the issue Tuesday and potentially reach a compromise. “I’m pretty perturbed by it. I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t show up,” said Amanda Green, Wisconsin Union vice president of public relations. “It’s kind of a slap in the face.” According to UWPD Assistant Chief Dale Burke, he and Lieutenant Larsonand he were at an all-day training session that ended at 5:15 p.m. But Associate Dean of Students Argyle Wade said Larson confirmed his attendance for the 4:30 p.m. meeting in an earlier e-mail. “I have a sense where the students are on this, but not the UWPD,” Wade said. “We may want the same thing in terms of safe events, but people maybe have different ideas of how to get there.” APE discussed forming a registered student organization committee involving UWPD representatives and UW students. According to Green, groups like the Associated Students of Madison, WUD, MultiCcultural Student Coalition and the Student Organization Office could all have representatives in the committee, and this could establish a dialogue with UWPD to set a common goal. “When it comes to security, the RSO Security Board could make sure the event won’t blow up in capacity limits and make sure everyone is following the rules,” WUD Music Committee Assistant Director Matt Forrest said. “Students should hold each other accountable. It’s their plan.” According to Burke, the RSO committee “sounds like a reasonable avenue to take,” though he said time constraints between the officers and the students could be a conflict with the organization’s success. “[UWPD] is always looking for ways of improving what we do. Hindsight is always much better after you’ve had a chance to view the outcome from different perspectives,” Burke said. “I would hope that the Lambdas and the Alphas would take the same perspective and realize that there were things they could have done better, too. I think we’ve all learned from the incident.” Green said she hopes to have a new procedure in place by the end of the semester and an RSO Security Committee organized by mid-spring. Argyle said the idea was interesting, but he wants to ensure the committee isn’t too invested in one solution yet. While no meeting has been rescheduled, members of the APE said they are interested in organizing a successful discussion with UWPD. Correction: Due to a reporting error, this article mistakenly said UW Police department Lt. Bill Larson had confirmed his attendance to an Alliance for Programming Equality meeting Tuesday, Oct. 30. The same article also had a comment made by Associate Dean of Students Argyle Wade about UWP taken out of context. We regret the errors.

5 Comments | Leave a comment

Anonymous | October 31, 2007 8:24 AM | Reply
IP hash: d59c084e

“could make sure the event won't blow up in capacity limits and make sure everyone is following the rules”

Capacity limits are racist. Rules are racist. Everything is racist. dontchaknow?

Anonymous | October 31, 2007 9:05 AM | Reply
IP hash: 088d668f

What is burke saying, “I would hope that the Lambdas and the Alphas would take the same perspective and realize that there were things they could have done better, too.” Don’t pin any wrong doing on the students. The police got scared by the lack of a security infrastructure because they knew it was a hip-hop event. They made a race/cultural assumption then don’t even make the time to help fix it even tho halloween just ended, biggest security event all year, so there shouldn’t be much else to do. They dropped the ball fuck UWPD.

Anonymous | October 31, 2007 11:12 AM | Reply
IP hash: d59c084e

“Don’t pin any wrong doing on the students.”

why not? did they have nothing to do with inviting thousands to a room that will hold hundreds?

Anonymous | October 31, 2007 12:28 PM | Reply
IP hash: 2560700c

The police would have showed up to the meeting if the room was full of minority students and hip hop was playing.

Anonymous | October 31, 2007 8:52 PM | Reply
IP hash: bd632baf

Would this then become a racial issue if a bunch of minorities died when they overpacked the auditorium? They explained why they didn’t allow the dance, and that should be just fine. I really don’t understand this at all. If you want traction on racial issues, don’t throw the race card on everything.