Of Blogs and Truths and Other Things

When I read my messages this morning, someone had sent me an entertaining suggestion for the best route to the truth. They are of the opinion that the UNCG police department either doesn't have the guns I wrote about yesterday and/or that it is not so out of the ordinary if they do since we are post-Columbine, post-VA Tech. In either case, they suggested that my blog post wasn't accurate and that I had been lax because:

"You could have asked the department to get the (updated) facts. "

While I am deeply appreciative of their efforts to get me the facts, something I am always trying to have a handle on, they have hit on exactly the problem. Asking questions here does not get you answers. I have spent years asking questions and the difficult is that I NEVER get answers. There are so many incidences where simple facts could smooth out any number of apparently gordian knots and yet, information is guarded as if it is a dangerous commodity, not to be trusted in the hands of the little people. 

The person who wrote was a graduate of UNCG and, I have to admit, an excellent writer. They quote (from a source I could not identify) that the six weapons in question were M-16 rifles that were given to them for free as part of the Law Enforcement Support Services and that they don't have them anymore:

"The 'found that the surplus weapons did not meet' their 'needs because of their overall length and began phasing them out for more suitable ones. Those six weapons were transferred to another North Carolina law enforcement agency and are no longer in' their 'possession.'"

If that is a statement made by someone on the UNCG police to a concerned citizen, then they are certainly not using the same spokesperson as the rest of the university, because even the simplest question gets a resounding 'no comment' slapped on it here. 

However, I'm still confused because the rebuttal states that the weapons were free whereas the documents obtained by the Marshall Project show a cost of just under $3,000. 

I am glad to hear they don't have them any more...if that's actually the case. I don't know a lot about guns and the response references M-16 rifles while the information from the pentagon references a 5.56 millimeter rifle - those might be exactly the same thing for all I know since the M-16 shoots 5.56 mm ammunition and holds 30 rounds as in the pentagon description. 

The UNCG police department has administration and it has staff, just like any other organization. At its helm has been a chief perfectly willing to arrest UNCG employees for failing to be as sneaky as those they worked for. I don't think a little extra inspection of their other decisions and processes is unwarranted.

And for those of you still hung up on my failure to be a journalist, your corrections and information are always welcome, but remember: this is a blog. 

Feel free to start your own.

Arming UNCG Police

We've seen signs of the militarization of the campus atmosphere, no surprise since our egregious leader for the last seven years comes from a military background and has the paranoia of a central American dictator. There have been canine units at tunnel openings, uniformed officers at silent vigils, and obvious police presence at board of trustees and faculty senate meetings.

The UNCG police arrested three of our fellow employees after an investigation that made the LA police/Simpson case look positively subtle. The UNCG police drew guns and assaulted a student trying to hang a banner. The UNCG police have a history of racial disparity in their traffic stops.

But never fear: now we're heavily arming them.

Recently, our little university police department was the recipient of six 5.56 millimeter rifles as part of a pentagon surplus program.

Six.

UNCG Police purchased 6 of these
5.56 millimeter rifles

I'm having a hard time imagining any situation that could be improved by this kind of firepower in the hands of a university police department. Who do they think our population is? Students, staff, and faculty are not an invading army, we are the body of the university.

I find it interesting that I am accused of potentially inciting violence but no mention has been made nor alarm raised about the possession of semi-automatic weapons capable of holding a 30 round detachable magazine whose major bragging point is "lower recoil and better accuracy providing higher 2nd shot hit probability."

When did these become necessary items to have lying around a university police department?

I mean, sure, they were a bargain at $2,994 and it is hard to resist a sale, but isn't there ANYTHING better on which that money could be spent? You mean to tell me that we were willing to pay $3,000 on semi-automatic weapons but we couldn't scrape it together to offer another section of freshman English (and at a savings!)

Wait, we spent more money on high powered rifles than the UNCG3 allegedly stole.

Faculty in departments across campus are having the phone lines cut off in their offices...but we have this money to buy assault weapons?

Everybody on campus can imagine something that desperately needed fixing, upgrading, or purchase - and now everybody on campus can know that the decision was made, instead, to buy big guns for our little police department.

I know the new chancellor is getting a significant pay raise and some nicer digs, but I didn't realize that s/he was going to need this kind of protection from the unwashed masses.

Do you think it's too late to send these back for a refund?