It was the text message heard (or felt, depending on your phone’s settings) ’round campus. There was a young man, we were all informed, walking near Spelman Halls toting what appeared to be a weapon. We were to stay inside with our doors locked for the duration: This was serious.
And so every Princetonian grabbed the nearest weapon-like object — a tennis racquet, a golf umbrella or perhaps a few DVDs of the eighth season of “Frasier” to slice through the assailant — and we waited, staring at our door like Josh Brolin waiting for Javier Bardem to burst in carrying compressed air and a hose. OK, maybe that was just me, but you get the picture.
The point is, even in the safety of our rooms, we felt uneasy at the prospect of an armed man on campus. We reported on the unfolding crisis from the safety of our rooms and offices; we wrote blogs about how scary it was. Some of us may have called home to tell family about the clamor.
For roughly an hour, every student — well, except one — thought it was highly likely that a conspicuously armed man was wandering campus. But while we huddled down, we expected Public Safety to be on the case. While we pondered with trepidation the thought of being confronted by a gunman, Public Safety sought him out. And yet these officers were armed with little more than the makeshift self-defense items we can find in our own rooms.
Last year, a campus discussion was initiated about whether Public Safety should be armed. That conversation has ceased. Now is the time to resume the discussion.
Last Saturday, we quite literally asked Public Safety officers to put their lives on the line for us. And yet rather than extend our thanks, we alternately complained that Public Safety was scaremongering or that they did not respond quickly enough.
The arguments in favor of arming Public Safety in view of this most recent incident are clear enough: Armed officers would be far more effective at protecting us, and themselves, in case of an actual emergency. Sending unarmed men and women out searching for a young man believed to be brandishing an assault rifle is comically despicable. Several counterarguments ought to be addressed, however.
One of the most common arguments against arming Public Safety is simply prejudicial. Far too many Princeton students have an unfair and unearned preconception of Public Safety as glorified mall cops. Despite those hilarious stand-up tricycles, this image is specious and insulting. Public Safety police officers, dressed in dark blue, are trained and certified police officers of the State of New Jersey and are just as qualified to carry firearms as any officer in the state; they currently relinquish that right to serve in this community. This leads, of course, to the elitist retort that no police officer is qualified to carry firearms, an immature argument that needs no response.
There are substantial questions, however, that should be considered. For instance, Princeton maintains a small collection of firearms under lock and key at 200 Elm Drive. If Public Safety really felt threatened, couldn’t they could just collect those guns and eliminate my concerns? First, this argument does not take cognizance of those officers already in the field, perhaps near the scene, who would either have to retreat to 200 Elm Drive to gather weapons — losing precious time in an emergency — or face the suspect unarmed. Second, a situation even slightly more pressing than the most recent would render weapons stored away in a closet somewhere useless.
What about the Borough and Township police forces? Certainly in a serious situation we could count on them and their equipment? The same appeal to timeliness stands, however, and another objection can be raised. Public Safety knows this campus better than any outside police force. In a true emergency, would you prefer P-Safe or Borough Police searching this campus’ labyrinthine buildings?
Perhaps the most substantial concern goes as follows: What if on Saturday, armed Public Safety officers confronted the student in question, and the situation inadvertently escalated to the point where the student was injured or killed by a P-Safe bullet? The first response is, given that we are speaking about trained and certified officers, that such an outcome would be highly unlikely. I furthermore invite you to consider the alternative, an alternative that recent history has shown to be tragically more likely than arbitrary police violence on college campuses: an armed man with malicious intent. The violence that could ensue upon officers and students, were the former unarmed, is unpleasant to imagine, but it is naive to think that somehow Princeton is immune to such incidents as those that occurred at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University? And we have just learned that housing an assault rifle on campus can be accomplished with ease.
And so rather than bellyaching about Public Safety’s policies, this event should remind us to thank Public Safety for protecting us and to reward them with a means to protect themselves.
Brandon McGinley is a politics major from Pittsburgh, Pa. He can be reached at bmcginle@princeton.edu.
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