Editorial, By The Chronicle Editorial Board
After finding out about the incident that occurred on the morning of Wednesday Sept, 11 when a student rode by security on a skateboard and was tackled and detained until APD arrived on the scene, one has to wonder what constitutes excessive force when it comes to the men and women that secure our campuses.
Students should not be riding their skateboards where there is high foot traffic on campus, and some students can be seen maneuvering and skating their way through crowds of people up to the doors of buildings such as the Student Services Center, which can be a hazard or could potentially hurt someone that is just trying to get to a class on the walkways.
Campus security used force last week on a student that heard security telling him to get off of his board, but kept skating anyway. This resulted in officers throwing the student’s board across the parking lot, tackling the student, pinning him to the ground, and witnesses say choking him before cuffing him.
Security does so much for the school, from helping students with medical needs and issues, to stopping the assaults and thefts on campus, but to the Chronicle, this particular incident seemed to include excessive force that could have been avoided. Security should have made themselves clear in their intent to detain this particular student, instead of throwing him to the ground for not listening to them and allegedly choking him before cuffing him, because he had no idea why they had grabbed him in the first place.
Students on skateboards need to be aware of where and when they are skating, and if there is a congested group of people ahead on a walkway, they should stop and get off the board, because it really is not worth being even later to class for being detained by security.