Huey Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, wrote in his autobiography about his experience visiting communist China: “The behavior of the police in China was a revelation to me. They are there to protect and help the people, not to oppress them. Their courtesy was genuine; no division or suspicion exists between them and the citizens.”

When he returned to the United States he was greeted by a SWAT team at the San Francisco airport. “This brought home to me all over again that the police in our country are an occupying, repressive force,” he said.

It seems that not much has changed in the United States since the days of the Panthers, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. Forget the ghetto.

Today, even in Ames, Iowa, we have a repressive occupying force operating with impunity, in the body of the Ames Police Department and the ISU Department of Public Safety.

In the Feb. 7 Daily story, “Charges won’t be brought against police for riot actions,” Matt Denner described his fellow classmates being beaten, gassed, Maced, herded and harassed as “appropriate” and “sensible” and said he feels content that the actions of the police were “justified.” The presence of the allegations and witnesses — not to mention the physical evidence of bruises and burns from Mace — would provide a body of evidence to convict any private citizen.

The Ames Police Chief Loras Jaeger declined to comment on the investigation for fear of “dwelling on the past.” There is a past that many people in this country would like to dwell on, however — a past we would very much like to change. That is a past of oppression and unchecked power by the state and its agents — the police.

It does not matter if some of the students in the riot were drunk. Drunken students are not the element required for a riot. Every night is a night of drunken revelry. Police in riot gear are the required element. Regardless, the police were not drunk and yet they acted with indiscriminate violence. They committed crimes against the people they are supposed to protect and serve. The police should be held to a higher standard, or at least the same standard, as students involved.

How can we expect the attorney general of Iowa to pursue charges against his own? How can we expect him to hold these abusive officers to the same standard as students? The state should not be allowed a monopoly on justice. We would be outraged if Enron was allowed to investigate itself. You cannot expect the state to bring itself to justice. The people of this city deserve justice, and not the brand of justice that is given in the street by a “hero” in riot gear. If the people are not given justice in the courtroom, don’t be surprised if they take it to the streets.

So, let’s be “sensible” like Matt Denner. Let’s take “appropriate” action, but let’s make sure we aren’t “responsible for any gross misconduct,” and let’s march to city hall, storm the capital, rush the precinct. Let’s interrupt their peaceful gatherings and provoke these bureaucrats and their stooges to action, change, and, above all, justice.

Ben Slattery

Sophomore

History