Cops fail to control fights on party nights
By Ben Tate
On two party nights in the past week, I've had to answer to the Santa Clara Police in regards to fights that have occurred on the street in front of my house. In both cases, the fights were between Santa Clara students and non-affiliates. In the past two years, I've noticed significant increases in two things on party nights: the number of fights and altercations taking place on the streets, and the number of non-affiliates attending (or attempting to attend) Santa Clara parties.
Within the Santa Clara community, and especially among those that attend off-campus parties, there is a growing sentiment that these two things are not unrelated--and something needs to be done about it. We are often quick to lump all non-affiliates into one group, referring to them as San Jose State students, which is both unfair and inaccurate. It is wrong and entirely unwarranted for us to assume that, because San Jose State is a state school, its students are thugs looking for trouble. SJSU has its own off-campus party scene, and though a few students might come across I-880 to see what the Santa Clara party life is all about, a vast majority of the non-affiliates walking around have nothing to do with SJSU.
I have no problem with people who just want to check out our party scene and have a good time because that's why we're out too. There's no reason to have something against someone who is simply looking to have a fun night. But I do have a problem with anyone who comes into our neighborhoods on a party night looking for trouble, and from this point forward, those are the individuals I will be talking about.
Santa Clara students who host off-campus parties have become more diligent about controlling who comes into their houses. The increase in incidents seems to have prompted off-campus students to be more careful about whom they let into their parties. Though this keeps Santa Clara students safe within the parties, it does nothing to enhance the level of safety on the streets. And from what I've observed, the police are not doing enough to keep Santa Clara students safe on party nights.
I understand that they have an obligation to enforce the law; they have to respond to parties when noise complaints are made and do their best to stop underage drinking. But do they really need so much manpower to break up a house party? In my experience, the police are far too preoccupied with the previously-mentioned offenses, and in doing so, they neglect bigger threats to the safety of those in our community.
In the first incident that took place in front of my house, five police cars responded. This was a good start -- it was a serious incident and the police responded quickly. However, it all went downhill from there. While one officer interviewed the Santa Clara student who was attacked by a group of non-affiliates, the other six (or seven, at this point who's counting) simply stood there talking to each other, even after descriptions were given of the suspects. Do you really need seven officers to interview one person? Couldn't the others have searched the area for the suspects, and possibly have taken a few dangerous individuals off of the streets?
The same thing happened with the second incident, except this time they responded slowly to the call. And even the police officers acknowledge that there is problem: One of the officers I spoke with admitted that he noticed an increase in the number of incidents involving non-affiliates and Santa Clara students.
This is a delicate issue. There is no way to deny people the right to walk around the neighborhoods and interact with others, nor would it be right to do so. To solve this problem, we need increased dialogue between off-campus students and the police department, and we need the party night police officers to shift some of their focus away from breaking up parties and, instead, to take time to patrol the streets for threats more dangerous to Santa Clara students than a couple of beers.
Ben Tate is a senior political science and economics double major.