OPINION & EDITORIAL
Don’t buy police detox rhetoric
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by Letters to the Editor
Monday, October 29, 2007
The recent article on detox ("Ending up in detox," Oct. 25) is another example of lazy reporting by your paper. Rather than investigating the real causes of the upswing in detox visits by students, the reporter simply took the statements of police officers and detox center staff at face value. This article perpetrates the stereotype of students as drunkards by characterizing those brought to detox as uniformly being unable to control their feces and/or urine in addition to "puking out their noses." Given that the threshold Blood Alcohol Concentration for being taken to detox is only .16, I sincerely doubt this is the case.
Rather than a function of increased binge drinking, as claimed by your article, I would argue that the increase in detox visits is a result of increased police presence, both downtown on weekend nights and at football games. Anyone who has been a student for the past few years, as I have, could tell you that the average student this year is no drunker than in years past. What has changed, however, is the massive influx of police officers brought about by the Downtown "Safety" Initiative. I guess Mayor Dave Cieslewicz needed a new way to spend the taxpayers’ money now that the streetcar plan is off the table.
I also take issue with the suggestion that being taken to detox is not a "punitive measure." If being taken to a "low-security prison" and being forced to pay $365 in fees is not a bad thing, please tell me what is. Not to mention the prospect of non-academic misconduct sanctions which the Offices of the Dean of Students will likely place on students who have committed the unspeakable offense of "binge-drinking."
In the future, I hope that your paper’s writers actually do some reporting, rather than regurgitating the misinformation spread by the Madison Police Department.
Brian Febbo
Senior, University of Wisconsin-MadisonUW Senior
febbo@wisc.edu
Mike Pruden (October 29, 2007 @ 8:51am):
I think the non-academic misconduct only happens if you happen to be underage.
Not that I don't agree with the stereotype, though. I once was pulled over in the downtown area with the cop convincing me I was drunk behind the wheel (I inadvertently cut him off.), in which he had to grab another police vehicle to try to prove his point. The problem was, I was STONE COLD SOBER!
It's frightening (no pun intended) to see how the authorities perpetuate the "stupid drunk college kid" stereotype. Especially when there are students out there who either do drink responsibly or simply choose not to drink at all.
Anonymous (October 29, 2007 @ 9:52am):
As my grandma would say, this is a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black. You don't explain in detail or substantiate anything you write.
For instance, you write that "Given that the threshold Blood Alcohol Concentration for being taken to detox is only .16, I sincerely doubt this is the case." Unless you provide an explanation of the level of impairment or danger common at that BAC, the number is useless.
Additionally, you claim that there is an increased police presence without citing any statistics. (And BTW, don't you think that the downtown initiate has at least something to do with the spike in sexual assaults last year?)
If this were to be an effective argument, you'd have to prove somehow that people are taken to detox who clearly (or at least somehow provably) do not require medical attention.
In all, there is no evidence that Mr. Luhn's story was anything but a fine piece of journalism-certainly not in your little diatribe. So please, don't defame something as "lazy reporting" simply because you don't agree with it.
Anonymous (October 29, 2007 @ 10:47am):
detox is covered by health insurance as an emergency facility visit - most people just don't bother to claim it (to avoid telling parents who deal with insurance perhaps?) - so it isn't a $365 fee.
Anonymous (October 29, 2007 @ 2:24pm):
Police will stop treating students like delinquents when they can show they can behave as the adults they actually are. College is not daycare or camp, I don't think a lot of students here have fully realized that.
Anonymous (October 29, 2007 @ 8:20pm):
"the stereotype of students as drunkards"
... the weekend after Halloween might not be the best time to challenge that "stereotype."
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