Radford University Police Petition

[dRUnkHIGHLANDERS]

just party on dark side and the cops will never bother you.

[chapnasty]

Anyone agreeing with the cops here obviously has never gone to Radford and dealt with these guys. You are encouraged not to drive drunk however if you walk home drunk you get harassed and taken to jail for drunk in public. I understand Obnoxious drunk people in the street but thats not the case the majority of the time. As an alumn who got out just as it started to get bad, you arent safe walking home after a night of partying. And what you arent safe from is the cops.

[truetheologian]

Good for you Radord Police Department! Keep up the good work.

[BCCButters711]

You can say whatever you want, but the fact is, the police do profile people down there. They simply have nothing better to do.

[psstoff995]

hahaha if by profile you mean

"im going to assume ever student i see stumbling with a crowd at 2am and throwing up in a bush has been drinking"

then youre right.

radford cops dont want to deal with stupid drunk kids any more than stupid drunk kids want to get arrested. they let slide what they can but when people are breaking windows and pissing on buildings it gets hard to miss

[BCCButters711]

Yeah, but most people do not break windows or do outrageously stupid things when they drink down there. Trust me, I was in one of the off campus fraternities and I saw how most people acted...drunk, yes, but not uncivilized.

[psstoff995]

When a cop sees two guys and a girl stumbling back towards campus all it takes is a look at campus statistics to see that there's a good chance she has been or will be sexually assaulted. What may appear "normal" to a student has the potential to look a lot worse to a cop. If they stop the bad drunks they stop the vandalism and the assaults as well. It's numbers, check them out, they don't lie.

[BCCButters711]

Um, no, that's not the way it works. I don't care what statistics you look at. It is still profiling and illegal (stopping other potential crimes, give me a break!). Besides, last time I looked, someone has to have more than a "funny walk" to appear suspicious. Although, considering it is college, there is a 90% probability that they have been drinking. That doesn't mean anything worse is going to happen.  See my other comments on here.

[psstoff995]

Uh, yeah. I'm pretty sure drunk in public is a crime regardless of age.

[psstoff995]

Thats profiling in the same sense that cops profile ever one who runs through a red light. If they have reasonable cause to think you are breaking a law, like drunk in public, they have every right to come talk to you. If you start slurring your speech and there's a smell of alcohol, that just makes it worse. If Radford PD really wanted to they could have hundreds of arrests per night but as you well know that's not the case. Profiling everyone on the basis that they broke a law is not profiling

[BCCButters711]

Buddy, you are not winning this debate. The only thing you are correct on is where you say: "If Radford PD really wanted to they could have hundreds of arrests per night but as you well know that's not the case."

Everything else about thinking someone is drunk could be due to medical conditions, a limp, etc. And don't compare this to running a red light--they are not the same.

"Profiling everyone on the basis that they broke a law is not profiling."

This comment makes no sense.

[psstoff995]

They don't arrest people for having a lip or having a medical condition. They do not arrest people for stumbling around. What I said was if they witness that, it gives them probable cause to investigate further. I'm confused how you think this is profiling. If someone is drunk in public then they broke the law. They're not unfairly treated because a cop profiled them as being drunk, they WERE drunk.

No one gets arrested if they have a medical condition or trip out of their own carelessness.

[BCCButters711]

Good for you! What do you want, a cookie?

[psstoff995]

No, that's ok. A lot of the public intoxication charges are of over aged persons though, these are people that may not fit the student profile. My point was that even if you can drink you still have a responsibility to do it legally. Thanks for the cookie offer though. I'm not really debating you either, I'm just trying to figure out what you mean by profiling and I'm trying to explain to you why this petition obviously didn't go anywhere. So really, you already lost?

[420991]

suspicious activity is a touchy subject. suspecious activity does not mean an act providing probable cause to believe a crime has been or may be committed, it simply is an action, clothing, areas for congregation that is not typically seen in a certian area reguarly. it is out of the "norm" so to say. so if a guy is walking down the street leaning to one side, head down, and swaying as he walks justifies suspicious activity because thats not something you usually see on a daily basis.

[rockaugust]

i'm a local in radford and 3/4 of the cops are dicks. i've been harrassed on multiple occassions for nothing. most recently, i was driving down main st. at 4am (not drunk) with a friend. 3 cops were standing next to their cars and scrambled to follow me as i passed. then followed me all the way to the city line. why? cause im young and out at 4am? meaning i must be drunk. its profiling, and illegal.

[420991]

the reason police crack down on drunk student is because if a student gets hurt on campus property wle drunk, it is a liability for the university.

[BCCButters711]

90% of the time, the student is not on campus property! I know because I went there, and never agreed with the university jurisdiction off of campus. If it was not on campus property or a campus event, how can they argue jurisdiction? It is like when they told me as a freshman seven years ago that if we got in trouble during the summer outside of Radford (at home), we had to tell the university about it! Yeah, right! Who is going to do that?

[biolectron]

crybaby students, you guys get by with so much crap it aint funny, speeding for one comes to mind. try being a local you get harassed more by the city police only because you punks are the life supply of Radford and they don't want to piss you off

[BCCButters711]

I think it is the other way around, bud.

[cheezncrackrz]

yea fuckin right! all the cops do is hang around campus waiting to give someone an alcohol charge. i dont see em ever doin that in other parts of radford! oh and also speeding? are u kidding me thats like a red flag for them to pull u over and try to give u a dui or search your car or some bullshit

[kahnizzle]

for example: I went to RU and i got arrested for having a street sign in my house.

The cops there are assh*les

[420991]

maybe because a street sign is city property and by having it it is theft of government property and illegal. learn the law

[BCCButters711]

You can purchase street signs legally on a variety of websites. Most are not that expensive. I understand the impression is that it was stolen, but how can they prove it?

[kahnizzle]

that is true, but the signs we had did not have the city property stickers on them, therefore they had no proof they were city property. my roommate found them the year before.....so go f**k yourself

[psstoff995]

found them? i totally buy that line of bull

how hard could it possibly be to remove a sticker.

[BCCButters711]

Yeah, "found them," really not the best lie, kahnizzle.

[BCCButters711]

Radford University needs to calm down. It is college and people are going to drink. It is a fact of life. Sooner of later, they are going to piss off some student whose mother or father is a hotshot lawyer, and that will be the end of it.

[420991]

no it wont because violation of liquor laws is not debatable. if they have you registered on a alco-sensor then you can not possibly get out of it. your popped

[BCCButters711]

I am not talking about that; I am talking about how they pull over people who have done nothing against the law and start asking them if they have been drinking, for example. It is one thing to pull someone over for speeding and asking that, but randomly picking someone out who hasn't done anything wrong is illegal. If you don't believe me, look it up.

[rockaugust]

trust me, i know. i got pulled over after getting off work by a RU cop. he refused to tell me why he pulled me over. then said he smelled alchohol(i hadn't been drinking or had it around my car). then the officer asked if i had been smoking weed! why? becuase i have longish hair and im young? then they said theyd let me go if they could search my car! let me go from what?! i said hell no and i have a good lawyer and they sent me on my way. this shit happens all the time here. it sucks hard.

[HurfinDurfin]

It's called "DUI enforcement". Seeing somebody who may swerve, go to slow when an officer is behind them, ride the center line, ride the white line, constantly break, make any sudden movements, or simply come out of a very high crime area; these all warrant an officers stopping of the vehicle. If the person isn't DUI, DUID, carrying drugs, driving recklessly, and has no outstanding warrants, then they have nothing to be concerned about. Get over it. BTW, I know for a fact that it isn't illegal.

[trancerunner06]

This is what happens when you're stupid. Small town + very active police force= a sure fire recipe for getting BUSTED when you put such attention on yourselves by playing loud music in a house with hundreds of underage kids at 2 am. DUHHHH. Be smarter about it and you wouldn't get hassled as much.

[ZogDawg]

The complaint forms are BS. I went in there to fill a couple of them out and then I decided not to because they basically make you register yourself in their system (name, address, phone number, etc.), and provide an exact date, time and location of the incident. That's why nobody has filled one out.

[ZogDawg]

It's true. One time me and my roommate were walking home from downtown and the cops pulled us over and asked for our IDs. I said "We're not doing anything illegal, are we?" and he said "Nah, I just have to make sure you didn't kill anyone". We waited like 15 minutes while he ran our drivers' licenses through the system. Also, I've seen cops snooping outside my window and had them randomly appear in the doorway at times.

[BCCButters711]

ZogDawg,

That is definitely illegal. They can't just pull you over for no reason, especially when the cop admitted it!

[itadoririver]

Well done! Stick with it, they have been enforcing their hillbilly tactics for years! 99 graduate.