Thursday, July 12, 2007

Police Blotter

Ivy Gate, the blog that covers all the Ivy League gossip, did a big post about The Dartmouth's police blotter. As all Dartmouth students know, that's easily the best part of the D. As somebody who comes from Manhattan, the Hanover Police's conception of crime is hilarious. But it also highlights that the main focus of the Hanover Police is chasing after drunk Dartmouth students, which is a shame. Why doesn't the town cut back on the force, and let S&S handle underage drinking, without arresting everybody in the process?

In other Ivy Gate news, incoming Princeton freshman Antonio Villaraigosa Jr. wrote stupid things on a Facebook group wall. No big deal, except that he's the son of Los Angeles' mayor. It sucks to face so much scrutiny, but I guess that's life.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, the IvyGate post paints the Hanover Po in a kindly light, suggesting that they sometimes go out of their way to avoid arresting students who just need time to sober up.

Anonymous said...

In addition, getting drunk Dartmouth students off the streets is an important priority for the Hanover Police, in fact and politically. Drunk Dartmouth students have historically committed major quantities of property damage or created a public nuisance (or both) on Main Street and elsewhere in town.

The drunk student taken into custody on Wheelock Street likely means an expensive storefront window safe from getting shattered or not having a student passed out in a Main Street bench or both. Can you blame Hanover families from expecting this kind of preventative effort by their police, and their police taking resaonable preventative measures?

David Nachman said...

I have no problem with Hanover Police arresting drunk students when they are off campus, since that is outside of Safety and Security's jurisdiction. But I don't understand why H.Po competes with S&S for catching drunk students on campus. For example, if S&S is already on the scene handling a situation and H.Po sees them, they'll go ahead and arrest the student even though S&S is there. The Hanover Police should let S&S patrol the campus exclusively and only get involved if requested by S&S. It's sort of like existing under martial law where there's both a regular police department and a hardcore military police.

Anonymous said...

Sup Nachman?

A friend of mine used to compile the blotter.

Essentially, they are looking for funny stories. It's not much of a surprise that most involve Dartmouth students, senile residents, or perverts. These stories speak to Dartmouth students' desires to read about themselves, funny old people, and sensationalist grossness.

Making the claim that H-Po spends most of their resources targetting Dartmouth students is, perhaps, a fair one. It is not statistically supported by the Police Blotter, however.