There used to be at time in the 1960s and ’70s when the relationship between the police and the students of this university was hostile, to say the least. Student protestors were tear-gassed, beaten up and arrested. Police officers were viewed as oppressive fascists who reveled in the joy of abusing their powers. No matter what one’s view is of the protests and the struggles of those times, we can at least agree that it all was for a noble cause. And these days it seems the remnants of that hostile relationship still linger in our campus, yet for a cause that is much less noble — alcohol.

It seems that some students are dissatisfied with the way the University of Wisconsin Police Department and the Madison Police Department are enforcing alcohol laws, and these students seem to believe the police’s time could be better spent pursuing hardened criminals and improving campus safety. And even though the apparent correlation that these critics draw might seem superficially convincing, it is in fact misleading.

First, one must dispel some of the myths propagated around this issue. Chief among them is the idea that police officers enjoy arresting underage drinkers and breaking up parties. Any arrest results in a large amount of paperwork and, potentially, court dates for officers — neither of which anyone would enjoy. Not to mention the alcohol-induced hostility that police officers face whenever they issue citations or attempt to break up a party. So I’m going to go out on a limb and assume officers aren’t arresting students for fun.

Another obvious myth is that of the drunken student who’s only after a good time. It is true that the majority of those who choose to drink are law-abiding. Yet this does not negate the fact that alcohol is associated with a large percentage of the crimes committed in Madison. Hence it is no wonder that MPD and UWPD would increase their level of enforcement on alcohol-related crime in order to curb this growing trend.

There is no denying that Madison, and Wisconsin for that matter, have a deeply rooted drinking culture. It’s also common knowledge that the overwhelming majority of the underage student population at UW drinks illegally. What is unclear, and plainly illogical, is how this fact justifies the demands for less enforcement on alcohol-related crimes. It doesn’t matter if one person or a thousand people are drinking while underage — they’re still breaking the law. And frankly, they should own up to their actions and accept the legal repercussions.

Yet in his article (“Drinking laws enforced selectively, hypocritically,” Sept. 19) my colleague Ben Patterson claims that since the police sometime choose to ignore illegal drinking practices in Madison on Saturday mornings, then they should do the same on Friday nights or they’re being hypocritical. If only it was that simple. Ideally, the police have a duty to enforce the law at all times, but in reality, they have to prioritize. This leads to the disparity in enforcement we witness. On game days, the UWPD’s resources are stretched due to the influx of tens of thousands of fans and the fact that the UWPD remains the sole law enforcement agency at Camp Randall. Hence it should be no wonder that underage drinking would take a backseat to the more pressing security demands of game days. The perceived selective enforcement of alcohol laws is anything but hypocrisy. It’s the police enforcing the law within their limited resources and according to their set priorities.

And no discussion of alcohol-related crime is ever complete without a mention of drunken driving — especially in Wisconsin. According to UWPD, 40 percent of the total traffic deaths in our state are alcohol-related. No objective observer would look at a statistic like this one and conclude that we need less enforcement of alcohol laws. In fact, we should be looking for more ways to aggressively reduce drunken driving. It is a preventable crime.

While underage drinkers may feel officers are being too harsh on them or selective in their enforcement, they must remember that they are the ones breaking the law and the officers are only performing their duties. If students do not agree with the law, then they’re venting their frustrations on the wrong people. The police are an enforcement organization and have little to no say in formulating laws. It’s the people in Congress and the state Legislature who students should blame. Instead of wasting their time complaining about the police’s enforcement of the law, they should organize and work to change it.

Ammar Al Marzouqi ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in computer engineering.