Last winter, an unmarked police car pulled out of the shadows under the Noyes El station one night during Finals Week, where a student was shooting a realistic-looking pellet gun at stop signs with several friends. Two Evanston police officers jumped out of the car, drew their weapons and shouted, "Drop the weapon!" and, "What are you, fucking retarded?"
The student, now a McCormick senior, says he immediately put the toy down and backed away with his hands up, yelling, "It's a fake gun. It's a fake gun!"
He was then arrested under Evanston code for possession of an air gun. The officers emptied his pockets and removed everything from his wallet, he says. (He did not get his belongings back until he was released.) They put him against the hood of one of the police cars that arrived as backup to pat him down. On the ride to the station, the student says the officer driving told him his life was over.
His situation isn't all that rare. Asst. University Police Chief Daniel McAleer says during the school year, about one NU student is arrested each month, between the Northwestern and Evanston police departments. Although NU students most often get tickets for drinking alcohol in public and drinking underage, there's no one offense that commonly gets NU students arrested, McAleer says. Students have been taken into custody for a variety of reasons, including pellet gun shooting and, just two weeks ago, marijuana possession.
When the NU police make an arrest, McAleer says officers handcuff and put the suspect in the back of a police car to take to their police station, located at 1819 Hinman Ave. The squad car's backseat was not comfortable, the McCormick senior says. It consisted of a plastic bench with insufficient legroom for the 6-foot-tall student, which was made worse by having to lean forward because his hands were locked behind his back.
Once at Northwestern's police station, someone takes the suspect's picture and fingerprints. Then the suspect will have to wait, handcuffed to a secured bench in the station, because the university station does not have a lock-up.
2008 Woodie Awards
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Brian
posted 3/06/08 @ 6:25 PM CST
Two things. First, common sense. Second, f**k the police. Evanston is terrible enough as it is and then add in the fact that our own police force gets off on intimidating us. (Continued…)
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