Two weeks ago, the Arab Student Association hosted a vigil in honor of the massacre at Deir Yassin on Driscoll Lawn.
There was a sizeable crowd of people involved including, at any given time, a minimum of four Campus Safety officers hovering around the perimeter, and up to four Denver Police Department squad cars overshadowing the event.
I did not fully realize the extent of Campus Safety’s and DPD’s mistrust until I read the headline article in last week’s Clarion, “Student accuses DU of excessive vigilance.” I found it ironic that the word “vigilance” should be used in tandem with our establishment’s paranoia over a vigil for a slaughtered village.
The presence of Campus Safety and the Denver Police at the event was not “excessive vigilance” in my view, but outright paranoia.
That view was only further confirmed as I read the article and learned about many of the hoops that Bassem Hassan and the other organizers of the event had to jump through in order to hold their vigil.
While this vigil may have been held in memory of a destroyed Palestinian village, it was not solely commemorating that event. It also encompassed the recent killings in the Middle East and the further tragedies that have befallen the Chicano and Native American populations of this country, both of whom are sorely underrepresented in today’s society.
I was surprised and pleased to hear that Hillel House and ASA had collaborated on the event. I am also very happy to see “Stop Terrorism Now” buttons on bags and bodies around campus.
But in order to stop terrorism abroad we need to first combat it at home.
Considering this is a campus that has seen a dorm room rape and numerous thefts in another residence hall within weeks of each other, don’t you think Campus Safety has better things for their officers to be doing?
Just what are we paying these people for, exactly?
And considering the Denver Police Department’s recent bad rap concerning certain files about various members of the Denver community which should never have existed, I would certainly hope that DPD would want to watch their own actions.
May there be, sometime in the future, a time when Campus Safety and the police will not see it necessary to overshadow a peaceful event with yet another ominous threat of violence.
