{"id":2633,"date":"2016-03-03T08:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T13:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=2633"},"modified":"2016-03-03T08:00:51","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T13:00:51","slug":"centonion-dps-condemns-use-of-military-grade-weaponry-horrible-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2016\/03\/03\/centonion-dps-condemns-use-of-military-grade-weaponry-horrible-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"CentOnion: DPS condemns use of military grade weaponry; \u201chorrible idea\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY GRAY WHITSETT – OPINIONS EDITOR<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid criticism and outrage, Centre College\u2019s Director of the Department of Public Safety Gary Bugg has reiterated his strong disapproval of accepting surplus military grade weaponry from the Danville Police Department (DPD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a horrible idea,\u201d Bugg said, shoving an M-16A4 off of his desk while making room for another shipment of semi-automatic SPAS-15 shotguns. \u201cThis,\u201d he exclaimed, motioning to the crates of weaponry and combat equipment, \u201cthis is a recipe for disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Public Safety (DPS) has long prided itself on resolving campus conflict without the use of force, and never with lethal weapons. Armed with flashlights, keyrings, and pepper spray, the only heat DPS officers are packing is the steady purr of a freshly charged electric golf kart. But now, that\u2019s all changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe DPD has gotten itself into some trouble,\u201d Director of DPS Kevin Milby said. \u201cAnd that usually spells bad news for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DPD has indeed gotten itself into some trouble after agreeing to participate in the United States Defense Department\u2019s 1033 program, in which military surplus can be redistributed to state and local law enforcement. Over the past several years, the city of Danville has accumulated a vast stockpile of these weapons despite the only real crime in Boyle County warranting the award is for the country\u2019s worst drivers, not police militarization. This has prompted the city government to devise a plan for unloading its absurd number of arms, the central provision being to shift their surplus\u2019s surplus onto smaller public safety organizations, like DPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some pretty crazy stuff in here,\u201d officer Randy Boyd said, accidentally discharging a smaller carbine into the coffee cup of officer Charlotte McConaha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked, the officers exhibited unanimous distrust of the weapons and equipment, explaining that they were sent through campus mail and several had been misplaced since the first shipment, including one incident in which officer Rubin Mosley dropped a loaded pistol walking from the post office to Walnut House. The Phi Delt whose golf club it nicked declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The struggle of the DPS officers might seem like a reflection of their competency, but it is in line with a series of concerns actual law enforcement officials have with 1033.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe worst part of this initiative is the lack of training,\u201d Danville Police Chief Anthony Gray Jr. said, who succumbed to federal incentives contingent upon participation in the program. Gray is referencing a troublesome component of the Defense Department\u2019s enterprise: the Pentagon is not required to provide training to the authorities these weapons and equipment are allocated to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would be a lie to say we are anything but underprepared for this,\u201d Director Bugg said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But DPS\u2019s transparency hasn\u2019t deterred student concern, some of which has blossomed into public activism that has divided the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Gullible, known for jumping on topical issues for social media attention, expressed his vitriol at various group meetings. Gullible has pioneered the #BlackAndGoldLivesMatter movement, raising awareness for a nonissue and deeply offending those who have been affected by actual police violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movement created significant blow black and a proliferation of hashtags followed. The #AllBlackAndGoldLivesMatter hashtag was created for students without a spine and the #NavyBlueLivesMatter, representing the DPS uniforms, was established for students who fundamentally misunderstand police brutality. Others abound\u2014notably #FratLivesMatter and #StrayCatLivesMatter\u2014but the general turmoil has polarized campus discourse and stunted a resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After doing an evening campus patrol on his new mine-resistant ambush-protected golf cart, DPS officer and suspender enthusiast Rick Johnson expressed his signature levelheaded good humor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI get the opportunity to injure a student every Friday and Saturday night. At this point, it\u2019s just too much trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving forward, it is hard to know how campus will handle the issue. In fact, some have come out in support of the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want my public safety officers equipped with whatever means necessary to keep this campus safe,\u201d one such supporter said, though he declined to reveal his identity for fear of being targeted by \u201cMr. Obama,\u201d the \u201cliberal press,\u201d and \u201caliens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen [DPS] busts into a room and catches some student smoking pot, I don\u2019t want their safety at risk\u2014they need proper protection.\u201d It was clear the student had never smoked weed and that his outlook was in no way grounded in reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, 1033\u2019s future at Centre remains to be seen, though some engaged students are pessimistic. They seem to think that most of the community, like most of the country, will forget about this issue until something awful happens, like abuse of authority or outright killing, and because of the nature of the program, the stockpile will only grow bigger and the deficit of proper training larger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author is inclined to agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s Note: The previous article is from the CentOnion series, a satirical publication focused on parodying various subjects unique to Centre College\u2019s campus.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, all content within this article is purely fictional and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Cento or Centre College.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition all quotations used in this article are purely fictional and do not necessarily reflect the views of the individuals quoted.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY GRAY WHITSETT – OPINIONS EDITOR Amid criticism and outrage, Centre College\u2019s Director of the Department of Public Safety Gary Bugg has reiterated his strong disapproval of accepting surplus military grade weaponry from the Danville Police Department (DPD). \u201cIt\u2019s a horrible idea,\u201d Bugg said, shoving an M-16A4 off of his desk while making room for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-leisure","category-centonion","category-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}