Focus
February 18, 1999
13
A night with the the Elon College Police
Chuck Buckley
The Pendulum
“Bad boys, bad boys.
Whatcha gonna do, when the sher
iff done come for you?”
On the Feb. 11,1 participated
in the “Ride-Along” program with
the Town of Elon College police
department.
Not exactly sure what to ex
pect, I showed up at the station
around five that afternoon and was
asked to sign a piece of paper say
ing essentially that stray bullets are
my friends.
After I signed away my life I
was told that I would meet the of
ficer with whom I would be riding
at the station later that night.
My only clue as to how the
evening would progress was told to
me as I walked out the door.
“If there is any gunfire you
are going to have to stay in the car.”
Gunfire! Cool! I’m about to
experience a side of Elon that I
never knew existed. It’s the ulti
mate reporter dream, bursting open
a conspiracy and exposing the seam
ing underbelly of society. I feel like
Nellie Bly!
At 11 p.m., I met Officer
Walker, the police officer with
whom I would be spending the next
few hours.
Walker has been with the Elon
College police force for a little over
a year. He is married with two kids
and he struck me a very friendly
guy-
After a bit of paper work the
two of us jumped into the brand-
spanking-new 1999 police cruiser
and took to the streets to fight crime
at Elon.
Needless to say, not a whole
bunch happened. We got to chase
down a couple of speeders, saw a
firecracker go off above our heads
and made a sorority girl pour out
her beer. The highlight was when
we got pull over one of my friends.
(1 of course didn’ t realize it until the
next day, but it was fun.)
Walker and I spent most of
Civil liberties under fire
Jeff Angel
Contributing Reporter
I think it would be safe to say
that we all want to see the really bad
people amongst us put in jail. You
can define “really bad” however
you want, but for the sake of this
article I’ll include murderers, rap
ists, the occasional thieving
crackhead or anyone who is making
life miserable for at least one other
person.
Every day thousands of these
people are put in jail and we never
hear about 99.9 percent of them
because they ’ re not ex-football play
ers or members of that fun-loving
Kennedy family.
I would even wager to guess
that most of us don’t really care
about these jailed criminals. Crimi
nals belong in jail, right? But there’s
always an obstacle getting in the
way of putting all of these bastards
in the big house: those pesky civil
rights. United States prosecutors
didn’t have to deal with such nui
sances in the past, but now the rights
of suspects are always interfering
with putting close-enough-to-guilty
. criminals in jail.
Probably the most important
rights of suspected criminals are
Miranda rights. If you don’t know
what Miranda rights are, think back
to the rerun of “Miami Vice” you
were watching the other day. The
right to remain silent, the right to an
attorney and the warning that any
thing you say can be used against
you in court of law are supposedly
rights that are guaranteed to crimi
nals. But not anymore, at least not
in Maryland, Virginia, West Vir
ginia, South Carolina and, of course.
North Carolina. These are the states
that fall under the jurisdiction the
Forth U.S. Circuit Court of Ap
peals, which ruled last week that
confessions given prior to the read
ing of Miranda rights to a suspect
are admissible in court. Many of
you are probably still unconcerned.
If a person confesses to a crime then
what difference to a few obligatory
statements about rights mean. Ac
tually, they mean a lot.
Confessions are very impor
tant to cops and prosecutors. They
make trials quick and simple, sav
ing taxpayers money, which, as we
all know, is the primary goal of all
civil servants. If a confession is so
prized, don’t you think some rules
might be bent or broken to get them?
Forced confessions are in direct vio
lation of Fifth Amendment, which
states “no person shall be compelled
in any criminal case to be a witness
against himself.” What is more
“compelling” to a person being in
terrogated as a murder suspect than
four or five burly cops with south
ern accents telling you repeatedly
to confess. After a few hours of
that, I think I would confess to be-
the evening talking about the de
partment.
“A lot of people look at small
town police as wanabees or armed
security, but we’re not, we’re real
security,” Walker said.
Officer Walker said that Elon
was a great place to work and raise
a family. He did say that it is a fairly
quiet town. Most of the calls that
they deal with are traffic violations
and loud music calls.
When I started to talk about
his work with traffic offenses he
responded by saying, “One of the
most frequent questions asked is.
‘Do you have a quota?’ No. We
don’t.”
My time spent with Walker
just went to back up my theory that
Elon really is a safe place on the
whole. There aren’t that many ma
jor crimes that take place here.
And if something should hap
pen I know have the confidence to
say that the Elon Police can deal
with it. With the exception of a
certain problem with his cup holder,
Walker handled himself in a most
professional manner. Overall, 1 had
good, if quiet, time on Thursday.
ing Fidel Castro.
Miranda rights protect people
who are ignorant of the law or just
too distraught to think straight while
being questioned. A lawyer would
tell a suspect not to answer certain
questions that could incriminate
him. Without these rights thou
sands of people could be impris
oned each year unlawfully and un
fairly.
I thought our country had pro
gressed from its “separate but equal”
past. Now instead of blatantly abus
ing other races, our government is
taking rights away from the only
Americans left that the majority of
the public doesn’t care about. Ev
eryone wants criminals in jail.
That’s where they belong. But one
of the core beliefs of our country is
“innocent until proven guilty.” By
taking away rights from suspected
criminals, we’re slowly reversing
that statement.
Other countries have used the
“guilty until proven innocent”
theory in the past. There was one in
particular I think you are all famil
iar with. If that country’s suspected
criminals couldn ’ t prove themselves
to be innocent, they were sent to gas
chambers.
Without Miranda rights,
American citizens will be unfairly
treated by our already corrupt legal
system. Sure, they’re just crimi
nals, but maybe someday it’ll just
be you.
Chuck Buckley/T/ie Pendulum
“Elon isn’t a bad place to work,” says Officer Walker
Just another typical Thursday night for Officer
Walker, with all the typical paperwork.