Whine to someone else

On Apr. 7, 2001 rioting began when 19-year-old Timothy Thomas was shot by a police officer who thought the boy was reaching for a gun. No one really knows what happened that night, and Officer Steven Roach, the shooter, has been accused by his own police department of lying about the details of the event.\nWhat is known is that Thomas was the 15th African American killed by police in Cincinnati since 1995, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. While each death was surrounded by its own circumstances and some even seemed justified, African Americans throughout the city felt strongly that they were victims of racial profiling.\nIn an insensitive move by the Village of Evendale, a suburb just north of Cincinnati, the instigator of these riots was hired onto the Evendale police force not even a year after the riots occurred. By hiring Officer Roach, Evendale showed its citizens that it cares more about liars than racial profiling victims.\nDoesn't sound like a good time to be a minority in the Cincinnati area, does it? If you live in the city you're faced with racial profiling. If you live outside the city you're faced with a law enforcement agency promoting lies and mistakes above your safety and opinions. \nSo I can't help but roll my eyes every time I open up the IDS and read yet another complaint about the Bloomington Police Department and IU Police Department's increase in alcohol-related arrests and citations. \nFor example, the IDS reported outcry from the student body after IUPD issued 13 alcohol consumption citations at a fraternity house last month. According to the report, these citations occurred after members of the fraternity agreed to let officers in the house and finally into residents' rooms. \nLet me get this straight. Officers were invited into the fraternity. People in the fraternity were illegally drinking. These people were issued citations. Well call up the American Civil Liberties Union! Oh yeah, some student groups are already planning on doing that. I hope the ACLU is deeply concerned that some underage IU students are not able to exercise their rights to break the law, because I'm not.\nAcross the country and around the world there are groups of people who face persecution by law enforcement for expressing their opinions or belonging to certain socioeconomic groups. Should a citizen be more concerned over freedom of speech or a teenager's desire to become inebriated?\nWithout law enforcement, IU students of all ages could get drunk whenever they pleased! But how else would this effect citizens? Since racial profiling accusations following the Cincinnati riots, police officers have backed off. The Cincinnati Police Department reports a 31 percent decrease in arrests the year following the riots. However, Cincinnati also saw a 30 percent increase in violent crimes. \nThe BPD and IUPD are making efforts to keep citizens and students safe. In some instances, such as in Cincinnati, law enforcement is taken too far and lives are lost. While citations are up this month, no one in Bloomington has been shot over illegal consumption. Students need to get over it and realize how much worse it could be. \nIf underage students wish to drink, then alcohol laws - not police enforcement, should be the real issue. Whine to lawmakers, not law enforcers if you want to see change. In the meantime, I'll cry a tear in my beer for those of you who are too young to drink.