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Harvard Police Target Of Racism Probe

4K views 25 replies 16 participants last post by  Killjoy 
#1 ·
Reporting
Beth Germano

CAMBRIDGE (WBZ) ― Classes are just weeks away at Harvard University, but the image of campus police is now being examined by a new six-member panel convened by Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust.

The committee, led by former Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph Martin, will investigate complaints that officers have unfairly stopped black students, professors and other members of the Harvard community.

"Police are supposed to be here to protect us and make sure we're safe. I might be targeted for a reason that has nothing to do with the person I am," sophomore Anselm Beach told WBZ.

In an e-mail to Harvard administrators, President Faust writes, "All of us share an interest in sustaining constructive relations between our campus police and the broader Harvard community, in order to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all faculty, students, staff and visitors."

She noted that earlier this month, officers confronted a person using tools to remove a lock from a bicycle.

It turns out the bike belonged to a black high school student from Boston who was working on campus for the summer. He was trying to cut the lock because the key had broken inside it.

On a campus that spans many cultural and ethnic backgrounds, students say no one should be singled out.

The committee will review the police department's diversity training, community outreach and recruitment efforts.

http://wbztv.com/local/harvard.police.racism.2.803919.html
 
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#3 ·
No kidding..there racist because they pulled over a black teacher while looking for a black suspect......racist woud be if they had reports of a white suspect and pulled over a black person...its all a bunch of bullshit in the good ol republic of cambridge....
 
#4 ·
"Police are supposed to be here to protect us and make sure we're safe. I might be targeted for a reason that has nothing to do with the person I am," sophomore Anselm Beach told WBZ.
Funny that you make that statement, since clearly your attitude against police officers has nothing to do with the people they are. You make assumptions simply because of the badge without consideration to the person wearing it. Well guess what? Right now, fellow officers and I have been targeted with death threats for a reason that has nothing to do with the people we are, but rather because we wear the badge. Perhaps you'd rather "enjoy" my reality...

She noted that earlier this month, officers confronted a person using tools to remove a lock from a bicycle.
Note to President Faust: In police work, we'd call that a c-l-u-e that a theft might be in progress. Note to Harvard officers - President Faust apparently was born devoid of the common sense gene. Since it seems that only white people are capable of committing crimes on or about the campus, please only focus your attention to the comings and goings of caucasians.
 
#5 ·
Note to President Faust: In police work, we'd call that a c-l-u-e that a theft might be in progress. Note to Harvard officers - President Faust apparently was born devoid of the common sense gene. Since it seems that only white people are capable of committing crimes on or about the campus, please only focus your attention to the comings and goings of caucasians.
Rule #1 : Liberals have no grasp of reality. They create their own reality in their ivory towers.
 
G
#6 ·
She noted that earlier this month, officers confronted a person using tools to remove a lock from a bicycle.

It turns out the bike belonged to a black high school student from Boston who was working on campus for the summer. He was trying to cut the lock because the key had broken inside it.
And the officers should have known this because.........?
 
#9 ·
At Harvard, blacks perceive blatant culture of prejudice

Students, faculty cite racial profiling, offensive treatment

By Tracy Jan
Globe Staff / August 29, 2008

It was the quintessential college scene: dozens of students from the Harvard Black Men's Forum and the Association of Black Harvard Women picnicking on the Radcliffe Quad, playing capture-the-flag and running relay races at their end-of-the-year field day.

But just an hour into the festivities on the sunny afternoon in May 2007, the fun screeched to a halt. Two campus police officers rode up on motorcycles. Were they students, the officers asked. Did they have permission to be there?
The young men and women, dressed in Harvard T-shirts, would discover that a fellow student in a nearby dorm had mistaken them for trespassers, according to students who were there and whose account was confirmed by Harvard officials.
The incident, which ignited criticism from black students and faculty, highlighted the prejudices that many black students say they continue to face at Harvard, not only from police, but from classmates, as well.
Leaders of black student and faculty groups say they hope that Harvard's review of campus Police Department practices will help spark a wide-ranging conversation about the racial climate on campus and lead to other concrete steps by the university to improve it. The review, announced Tuesday, follows long-standing complaints of racial profiling by police.
"The alarming thing is that this happens in one of the most progressive towns, the most progressive university, and there's this reluctance on behalf of students to even acknowledge that there is some covert racism going on," said Bryan Barnhill, a Harvard senior and former president of the Black Men's Forum.
Barnhill said he would like to see Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust deliver a speech that makes it clear Har vard will acknowledge and address racial misunderstandings and biases.
"Rather than just focusing on the Police Department, it would be a brave step if the president would ignite a broader and more honest discussion about race," he said.
Leaders of Harvard's Association of Black Faculty, Administrators, and Fellows, who met with Faust last fall to discuss their concerns, also want her to go further as she enters her second year at the helm. They are calling for Harvard to create a campus climate committee and a police community board, among other initiatives, to foster cross-racial understanding among students, as well as with the predominantly white Police Department, a private force overseen by the school.
Faust could not be reached for comment on the racial climate at Harvard.Her spokesman, John Longbrake, said she is "strongly committed to ensuring that Harvard is a community that celebrates diversity and promotes cultural and ethnic awareness."
Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, said he has spoken with Faust about improving the racial climate and believes she takes the problem seriously.

"We have to have zero tolerance," Gates said. "Any example of racism is one example too much, from the police or any other sector of Harvard University."
Harvard police officials would not comment on the quad incident or accusations of racial bias. They said in a statement Tuesday that the review of its diversity training, community outreach, and recruitment efforts would help them better serve a diverse community.
Interviews with black students and faculty reflect a perceived climate of underlying racial insensitivity on campusthat goes beyond the police. The students recounted incidents when they said white students made them feel as though they do not belong. Their sentiments echoed those of W.E.B. Du Bois, the university's first black PhD, who famously said, "I was in Harvard, but not of it."
Some white classmates assume they are outsiders, black students said, even though they live in the same dorms. Black students account for 8 percent of the school's 6,600 undergraduates.
Sangu Delle, president of the Black Men's Forum, recalled an incident last school year when a white student followed him into his dorm's computer lab and questioned his presence.
"He basically treated me as if I were not a student, as if I had broken in and was a thief walking through the halls of my own dorm," said the 21-year-old junior.
Encounters with police, blackstudents and faculty said, further fuel their sense of not belonging.
S. Allen Counter, a well-known neuroscience professor, said two officers stopped him as he walked across Harvard Yard in 2004 and threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification. Not believing Counter was a professor, despite his three-piece suit and tie, the officers entered Thayer Hall and questioned students about his identity.
Hours later, Counter learned that he had been stopped because he fit the profile of a well-dressed robbery suspect.
"What offended me most was . . . seeing the faces of my students who said, 'Dr. Counter, they interrogated us about you,' " said Counter, who also heads the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.
Tim Turner, head of the Black Student Association, said a police car pulled up as he and minority high school students he mentors in the Harvard Crimson Academy played Frisbee this summer next to the Malkin Athletic Center.
"The worst part is that the high school students notice," Turner said. "They automatically feel like they have targets on their back."
J. Lorand Matory, a professor of anthropology and African and African-American studies who cochairs the black faculty association, said that establishing a police community board - made up of faculty, police, administrators, and students - would help solve problems and build goodwill. But Longbrake said the university has no plans for such a board.
The association is also calling for a more diverse police force, as well as increased hiring of black faculty and administrators. Within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 3.2 percent of tenure-track faculty are black. In the spring, Faust oversaw appointment of the first black dean of Harvard College, Evelynn Hammonds.
After police rode away from field day in May 2007, the black students learned about a series of e-mails over a dormitory e-mail list accusing them of ruining the lawn, just weeks before a graduation ceremony would be held there. The black students pointed out that days earlier, a group of mostly white students had held a bash that included alcohol and a slip-and-slide that muddied the freshly seeded lawn. No one alerted police.
Black students and faculty leaders say the quad incident should be discussed in freshmen orientation as an exercise for students of all backgrounds to acknowledge their racial biases. The orientation program nextmonth will feature a more general race discussion centered around a reading list.
"People cannot forget," said Natasha S. Alford, former president of the Association of Black Harvard Women who graduated in June and helped organize the field day. "If people forget, the exact same thing will repeat itself."
Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/ar...ceive_blatant_culture_of_prejudice/?page=full
 
#10 ·
Harvard scrutinizing its police on race

Harvard scrutinizing its police on race

Former Suffolk district attorney Ralph Martin will lead the six-member panel that will review Harvard's police force. (George Rizer/ Globe Staff/ File)

By Tracy Jan
Globe Staff / August 27, 2008

Harvard University will launch an examination of the campus Police Department following long-running complaints that officers have unfairly treated black students and professors and, in an incident this month, a black high school student working at Harvard.



President Drew Gilpin Faust announced yesterday that she has appointed an independent, six-member committee to review the diversity training, community outreach, and recruitment efforts of Harvard police, the first review of its kind in more than a decade. In recent weeks, black student and faculty leaders have been pressing the university to address what they view as racial profiling by the predominantly white campus police force, which Harvard oversees.
Ralph Martin, former Suffolk district attorney and managing partner of the Boston office of the Bingham McCutchen law firm, will lead the committee, which will start work next week.
"All of us share an interest in sustaining constructive relations between our campus police and the broader Harvard community, in order to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all faculty, students, staff, and visitors," Faust wrote in an e-mail to senior university administrators and faculty. ". . . I am confident that this group's efforts will help the university address this important set of issues in a constructive spirit and forthright manner."
Black faculty members praised Faust's initiative, saying it signaled that she will address the issue thoroughly and effectively. Some said the university should go further and establish a permanent police community board to ease tension on both sides.
Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree said black students arrive on campus aiming for academic success but instead find themselves under suspicion.
"I've been hosting, moderating, and mediating meetings between Harvard's black students and university police for much of the last 20 years, and it always stems from an individual incident when African-Americans appear to be the subject of racial profiling by the police department," Ogletree said yesterday. "The problem is a persistent one, because there's still this unfortunate assumption that equates the color of a person's skin with involvement in criminality."
Harvard police officials would not respond to questions about specific incidents, but issued a statement yesterday saying they hope the review will help the private force better serve Harvard's diverse population. "We look forward to any recommendations generated by the process that will help ensure the HUPD remains as effective as possible," the statement said.
Faust was unavailable for comment yesterday. In her memo, she wrote that the review is being launched "partly in response to concerns expressed internally."
Earlier this month, she noted, officers confronted a person using tools to remove a lock from a locked bicycle. The person, whom others familiar with the case have identified as a black Boston high school student working on the Harvard campus this summer, owned the bicycle, and was trying to cut the lock because the key had broken off in the lock. The two officers involved have been placed on administrative leave, pending a separate investigation into the matter, said a source familiar with the case.

Faculty and students say previous incidents have fanned tension with police.
In spring 2007, officers interrupted a field day on the Radcliffe Quad sponsored by two black student groups. Police asked whether the young men and women were Harvard students and whether they had permission to be there, even though they had a permit.
And in 2004, police stopped S. Allen Counter, a prominent neuroscience professor, as he was walking to his office across Harvard Yard because they mistook him for a black robbery suspect.
Earlier this month, in response to inquiries from the Globe, Police Chief Francis Riley said through a spokesman that the department has begun conversations with the black student organizations to address "bias incidents" but would not respond to a request for statistics on how often black students and faculty are stopped.
Alneada Biggers, president of the Association of Black Harvard Women, said the review shows Faust is aware of black students' concerns about police.
"It's much needed," Biggers said. "If you talk to any student in the black community, they'll talk about being targeted."
J. Lorand Matory - who co-chairs the Association of Black Faculty, Administrators and Fellows - called the police review a "thoughtful response."
"I hope this committee will be able to initiate a thoughtful conversation that we have not been able to accomplish to date," said Matory, a professor of anthropology and African and African-American studies.
Martin said he hopes the committee will present its findings and recommendations by December.
"Any great institution is never afraid to be introspective," Martin said. "This is really an effort to identify what the university police do well, as well as what the areas of improvement potentially are. We're going to go at it as objectively as possible."
In addition to Martin, members of the committee are William Lee, a former Harvard overseer; Mark Moore, a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government; Nancy Rosenblum, Harvard professor of ethics in politics and government; Matthew Sundquist, president of the Harvard Undergraduate Council; and David Wilkins, a Harvard law professor.
Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.


http://www.boston.com/news/educatio...rd_scrutinizing_its_police_on_race/?page=full
 
G
#11 ·
Re: At Harvard, blacks perceive blatant culture of prejudice

I don't understand why the HUPD doesn't just sit at the Au Bon Pain and observe the scenery; it's obvious neither the school nor the students want them to do anything.
 
#12 ·
Re: At Harvard, blacks perceive blatant culture of prejudice

Harvard Black Men's Forum and the Association of Black Harvard Women
Pardon me for saying this but why is it ok for ANY group of individuals EXCEPT whites to form a Forum or an Associtaion to preserve there heritage or advance there status...Im pretty sure if I started White Entertainment Television I would be considered racist...
 
#13 ·
I wish to GOD I could make some comments on this whole situation, but even though I'm not one of the two who have been convic....on administrative leave, I cannot make any statements. Suffice to say, there's A LOT to this.

But man, I've got SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much on my mind about this whole situation and I am not alone.
 
#14 ·
I wish to GOD I could make some comments on this whole situation, but even though I'm not one of the two who have been convic....on administrative leave, I cannot make any statements. Suffice to say, there's A LOT to this.

But man, I've got SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much on my mind about this whole situation and I am not alone.
Hey Big J!

Well, Well, Well,
Let's see where the Union takes this. You're saying two officers are on administrative leave? Would that be for the "Bike lock field investigation" or the "field interrogatory for assembly-with-permission-due-to-a call investigation" ?
God forbid anybody working for a campus agency should conduct low level inquiries into a person(s) reasons for being present on private property.
Unfreakin believable! It's a damn good thing the recent threat to a female on campus was by a white male! Good to see some caucasians out there looking for trouble too!
:-D
 
#16 ·
We keep telling them our biggest problem went to Whitman, but they won't listen!

Yeah, keeping quiet is not my cup of tea, you're on the money with that Kevin!
 
#17 ·
Hey Big J!

Well, Well, Well,
Let's see where the Union takes this. You're saying two officers are on administrative leave? Would that be for the "Bike lock field investigation" or the "field interrogatory for assembly-with-permission-due-to-a call investigation" ?
God forbid anybody working for a campus agency should conduct low level inquiries into a person(s) reasons for being present on private property.
Unfreakin believable! It's a damn good thing the recent threat to a female on campus was by a white male! Good to see some caucasians out there looking for trouble too!
:-D
I sincerely hope that the "International" union that represents Harvard has already acted on this BS. They should have fired off a letter to the President immediately. I hope they still employ at least one capable attorney who will fight the good fight...even though this fight shouldn't be necessary in the first place!
 
#18 ·
Harvard cop fights racial profiling charge


Photo by John Wilcox
Harvard police officer Theresa McAuliffe.

Harvard University police officer Theresa McAuliffe has spent a decade teaching self-defense to women and patrolling the Cambridge school's hallowed grounds but now may lose her job because she's been accused of racial profiling.
"I'm shocked," McAuliffe said of a Boston teen's race-based complaint against her and a male officer. "Very disheartened. I love my job. I love working at Harvard."
McAuliffe and the other officer, whose name has not been released, are on paid administrative leave but face a disciplinary hearing at which they could be fired. The pair are accused of racial profiling for an Aug. 8 incident in which they were called to a report of a man stealing a bike.
The pair went to a bike rack on campus where they found a black teenager cutting a lock off a bicycle. The officers later learned the bike belonged to the teen and that he was cutting the lock off because his key broke.
The teen has since complained that he was verbally abused by the officers and says McAuliffe pointed her gun at him.
A Braintree mother of three, McAuliffe admits she and her colleague used "authoritative voices," but denies pointing her sidearm at the teen. She said she had her hand on her gun and unlocked it from its safety holster in case she had to use it.
"I had it pushed forward so if I needed it it was ready," she said. "When you can't see their hands or their face, you don't know what they have. You have to assume they have a weapon."
The teen, who turned out to be a summer intern, had his back to the officers when they arrived, and she says she followed standard police procedure for dealing with a possible crime in progress. Once she figured out what was going on, she says she took her gun out, reset the safety, put it back in the holster and sent the student on his way.
The incident is the latest example of racial tension at Harvard, where school officials have formed a panel - headed by former Suffolk District Attorney Ralph Martin - to investigate race relations on campus.
In 2007, a black student group alleged they were harassed by police during a barbecue.
McAuliffe's attorney, Tim Burke of Needham, said his client has been made into a "scapegoat" by the college.
"They're suggesting there was racial motivation behind this situation and nothing could be further from the truth," Burke said.
Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn said the investigation into the student's complaint is ongoing.

http://bostonherald.com/news/region...Harvard_cop_fights_racial_profiling_charge_1/
 
#19 ·
Keep your head up Ofc. McAuliffe, you did nothing wrong. Good luck with the hearing and, if god forbid, something negative comes out of it, I would think you have a nice lawsuit on your hands.

Damn Liberal College Administrators in their Ivory Towers that think they know everything about policing and what should be done out in the field. It makes me sick.

Keep up the good work HUPD!!!!
 
#20 ·
Re: At Harvard, blacks perceive blatant culture of prejudice

I don't understand why the HUPD doesn't just sit at the Au Bon Pain and observe the scenery; it's obvious neither the school nor the students want them to do anything.
I used to work at one on the large Boston Campuses that is similar to Harvard. The campus admins DO pressure the cops to be very proactive because the students get robbed blind by outsiders. The problem is that as soon as the cops do their job involving the "wrong" person, the cops are demonized. Minorities at my campus were untouchable and it was a disgrace what was alowed to happen. The place even had a policy were wanted posters couldn't describe the race of the person.
 
#21 ·
Re: At Harvard, blacks perceive blatant culture of prejudice

I used to work at one on the large Boston Campuses that is similar to Harvard. The campus admins DO pressure the cops to be very proactive because the students get robbed blind by outsiders. The problem is that as soon as the cops do their job involving the "wrong" person, the cops are demonized. Minorities at my campus were untouchable and it was a disgrace what was alowed to happen. The place even had a policy were wanted posters couldn't describe the race of the person.
\

That is why 15 years ago, I told the college PD chief where I used to work that is why I was leaving to go municipal. I was sick of babysitting drunk students and doing lockouts. Fuck that, that's not police work.
 
#22 ·
I wish to GOD I could make some comments on this whole situation, but even though I'm not one of the two who have been convic....on administrative leave, I cannot make any statements. Suffice to say, there's A LOT to this.

But man, I've got SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much on my mind about this whole situation and I am not alone.
We keep telling them our biggest problem went to Whitman, but they won't listen!

Yeah, keeping quiet is not my cup of tea, you're on the money with that Kevin!
Jim

You must be busting at the seams on this. I was wondering why it took 13 post before you chimed in, but I can see the sensativity issue here. PM me sometime to catch up on things.

Kev

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

Stay safe, the two of you.
 
#23 ·
Other than to say, GO THERESA!!!!!!,

I'll be quiet on the current BIGGER issue. But one thing that has been driving me INSANE is the whole party issue from last year. The entire incident was over in less than 5 minutes and those who were 'stopped' even acknowleged at the time that the cops who responded were real good, had done nothing wrong and had only responded to a call from a third party. Somehow it isn't acceptable to mention the last two parts of that story, only that the cops stopped someone that had no real reason to be stopped. At the time there were a few who harped on the cops being on motorcycles and the whole mirrored sun glasses thing, but they were dismissed as disgruntled whiners early on. The non-issue issue died very quietly after only a few days. Until NOW................

WTF!?!?!?!?!

Hey Roger, thanks for the words of support, and the same goes for all of you out there. The famous old saying applies here big time, "There but for the Grace of God go I" and truthfully, don't think this type of witch hunt can't happen in a municipal department. It can happen ANYWHERE. We campus cops are just easier targets for the intellectual elite since we're so damned handy!
 
G
#24 ·
What a disgrace; does Harvard University really want their police to ignore suspicious activity and blow-off radio calls when the suspect happens to be a minority??

As the old saying goes, a society that makes enemies of its police better make friends with its criminals.
 
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