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'Big brother' is watching

To the editor,

Is it me or is the University of Arizona a police state? Seldom does a day go by that the Police Beat section of the Arizona Daily Wildcat doesn't report the campus police using underhanded methods to accuse students of drug and alcohol violations. Just on Wednesday, September 29, a surveillance officer on top of a residence hall suspected two students walking below of smoking a, "leafy green substance." These students were cited, and I am sure they are on their way to some university sponsored drug program. Plus, their parents will probably be notified. Do all of the roofs have police surveillance? Do they look in our windows when they are open, under the guise of looking for green leafy substances? I don't believe for a moment that he or she is not looking in the windows of attractive coeds while looking for "leafy green substances."

Several times I have read about people being reported on by their fellow students because they could "smell beer." The university police department's reaction to this is searching their entire apartment. Are students at the University of Arizona not entitled to some measure of privacy? Students that live in campus housing shouldn't have to sign away their civil rights just because their landlord is the university. How often are we being watched by these peeping toms as we go about our daily routines? How far are the pawns of the university's ill-conceived drug and alcohol war willing to trample our constitutional rights? All of this, so that they can protect us from ourselves.

The police department needs to rethink its policies. The first thing they need to do is realize that the students at the University of Arizona are grown adults, not children, and we don't need to be watched by the police since the majority of us are law abiding citizens.

Scott Marley

Education graduate student