The father of a Fitchburg State University sophomore expelled last week and detained for 10 days by police after wearing a fake ammunition belt on campus said authorities overreacted to his son’s “fashion statement.”
“I’m as shocked and outraged as anyone about what happened in Newtown [Conn.], but when the state troopers took my son to the station, they should have realized that the ammunition belt was fake and given him a $25 fine and let him on his way,” Peter Despres, father of Andrew K. Despres, who was arrested Dec. 18 for trespassing and carrying ammunition, said Thursday.
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Do they really have zero tolerance for a knife in dorm room? That sounds like an insane policy.
I'm sure it wasn't a Swiss Army or a butterknife.
Anyone who has already been in trouble for possesion of marijuana and an apparently objectional knife in his dorm room, and then shows up, for heaven's sake, with a look-alike ammo belt, and has an idiot for a father to back him up, sounds like a kid to be pitied. Talk about lousy parenting.
This boy sounds too stupid for college. Common sense seems to be in short supply with both father and son.
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I'm afraid that the young Mr Despres would have been better served if his father had NOT reacted publicly to his arrest. His expression of outrage is only apt to prolong his son's time in the spotlight for acts that are moronic at best. It's hard to imagine his outrage eliciting much sympathy (except from the lunatic fringe). The young man was expelled for violations of the student code that he was informed of during his orientation. If he had left it at that and moved on, this would have been one thing. But his unannounced return to campus after being instructed to contact campus police before arriving is quite another. Mr Despres arrived back on campus after his expulsion and trespassed while festooned with ammo belts. The campus police reaction was warranted and totally appropriate, given the circumstances. That said, I do feel sorry for both father and son for obvious reasons. As they say, life is hard, but it's even harder when you're.......oh, you know the rest.
The $50,000 bail was wrong, but what does the father have to say about his son having a knife in his room?
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I used to backpack all the time and I always carried a hunting knife. When I wasn't hiking it was in my dorm room. It wasn't a dagger or stiletto, of course, but I suppose it could be used as a weapon. You can strangle someone with a belt or smother them with a pillow. Should we ban belts and pillows? And for those who don't know, a machete is an agricultural implement. It's used for harvesting cane or to slash your way through heavy overgrowth.
Unless Framingham State has a written policy forbidding knives, they have no grounds, but the marijuana is probably still considered contraband by narrow-minded administrators.
What kind of knife? I Buck knife? A rigging knife? A Swiss Army knife? I am sure glad I was in school in the 70's, before all this nonsense started. Higher education was actually education and not mere remediation, a degree meant something, every little thing wasn't regulated, and every less than positive interaction wasn't "bullying."
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I googled Ammo belts and it appears they are worn as fashion accessories. The rules/laws should allow for this type of artistic expression. Plus, how does one cut snack food if a knife is not allowed in a dorm room? Just think the Police overreacted/overcharged this young man. I don't like living in a police state, do you?
Your son and you are being punished for not doing what the "village" wants, for not being in the spirit of the "village's" sensitivities. And this is a 1 party, "it takes a village" state that does not really believe in laws, freedom, independence, and diverse interests and opinions so much as it believes in sheep. Sure, the sheep can be "diverse" so long as they support the "village's" vision. Your opinions and actions are respected so long as they are within the range of what the "village" thinks is reasonable and understandable, not within the range of what is possible or what the laws are. That's what "banned in Boston" is all about. It's a provincial little town in the provincial little state that has convinced itself it's the "hub" of the universe and acts accordingly.
It sounds like to me that he was a bit of a maverick. A quirky, but harmless individual. Those are just the kinds of people who become Steve Jobs. We should champion them, not incarcerate them. Innovators are different, even from each other.
We have a lot of people in law enforcement who are mentally challenged. Not all of them, of course, but a lot.
This is one of those issues that irks me. We can't be a productive and innovative society and yet be completely safe at the same time.
We no longer allow young people even minor infractions. Bill Gates hacked into Unix computers before he became Microsoft. Steve Jobs hacked the Bell System telephone network so he could make free calls, and sold "black boxes" to make it easier for others. Robert Goddard launched rockets from his backyard.
Today we repress that kind of behavior in the young. You can't even buy you science oriented kid a decent chemistry set anymore. He might get hurt. If they do something anti social, we not only punish them, we flash their faces all over TV and subject them to ridicule.
We were once the most innovative nation in the world, but today, according to Bloomberg, that title belongs to Singapore, followed by South Korea, Switzerland, Iceland, Ireland, Iceland, Hong Kong, and Finland. We're No. 8 and falling.
who-cares-1940, a couple of excellent posts with which I agree except for one point, that "a lot of people in law enforcement are mentally challenged". I don't believe that's the problem. I think it's management (ie, law enforcement management). Lots of bad stuff will happen in any organization where the "culture" is septic -- whether because it has broken down or become warped, or was never appropriate in first place. The "culture" is created by management, especially the person at the top. Think about some stores you go in, restaurants, delivery services, where the service is friendly and cheerful, where few problem ever seem to occur, and where, if they do, they are worked out in the best possible way. This is the result of good management. Law enforcement is not a new thing where there are lots of unknowns. There are cities where it is deemed honest, effective, and supportive. There are think tanks, there are studies. When law enforcement loses its sense of context and fairness it becomes abusive.
We have to stop freaking out over fake ammo belts and umbrellas that, "could be taken to look like a gun". Even when they appear after tragedies that have people on edge.
Is it good that citizens, 'see something, and say something"? Yes, it is.
But once the police arrive, and find an umbrella or a fake belt (generally not that hard to tell it's not real ammo), story should be over. Nothing to see here. These folks got it a little bit better (no arrest) but still over-reacted; http://www.katu.com/news/local/7084346.html
And for the record, I agree the kid looks goofy, and I'm fine with arresting him for trespassing or other violations, but those don't get you $50,000 bail...
"The officials want China to be seen as a cultured, creative nation, but in this anti-liberal political society everything outside the direct control of the state is seen as a potential threat." --Ai WeiWei
"In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want—not only you, your whole family and all people like you." -- Ai Weiwei