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“The impetus for having guns was phony. The worst crime that’s ever done here is people smoke marijuana. This is a happy place. It’s not a place where guns are necessary.” – Faculty Union executive director Frank Annunziato in University of Rhode Island police to start carrying guns [at turnto10.com]

59 COMMENTS

  1. We don’t need fire alarms or extinguishers….there’s never been a fire here!

  2. Sounds like a nice quiet town. A lot like Newtown, CT or Blacksburg, VA.

  3. You know, they oughta get it by now.VT doesn’t want gun control because there is no crime there. Meanwhile, people in high crime areas want all the guns they can get. It’s the ultimate wife with a headache scenario, they can not take a hint. We’re telling them to F#&@k OFF.

    • There are many reasons to ‘have’ / ‘use’ guns. I like the one that says that, sometime [likely long] before America ‘ends,’ the self-imbued authority of these no-talent a-clowns to regulate your firearms (infringe) will sunset violently. Keep your guns for that day, and whatever comes next, and don’t allow the weeds of this cr_p invade your new lawn.

  4. The high profile (no pun intended, I really couldn’t think of another phrase) incidents notwithstanding, campus cops having guns is generally a bad idea. The professor is correct that there is no crime, other than sexual assault at parties that the campus cops aren’t going to do anything about anyway. If you think the NYPD are lousy shots, imagine how bad a wannabe who couldn’t make the cut at the local municipality is going to be.

    • In most states, campus police are academy graduates and sworn officers and have the same requirements as municipal police.

        • Yeah, there should be strict training requirements, background checks, and the chief of police should get a say on whether these citizens are allowed to be armed, amirite?

          Stop being a hypocrite.

        • @B

          For law enforcement officers, absolutely. As someone once said “with great power comes great responsibility.” Nothing hypocritical about it. Stop being so childish.

        • Geeze, you don’t even see it, do you? That you would disarm these people? Good to know not to take nothing from you seriously.

        • @ B

          As private citizens they are welcome to carry all they want. When they are acting in an official capacity it is completely different. If you can’t see the difference then please let me know so that in the future I won’t bother to read your posts.

        • Good to know you believe the Bill of Rights can be infringed based on your job. You are the definition of a hypocrite. Why don’t you go back to Baltimore, I hear some parts of it haven’t burnt down yet? Got to get back at them brownshirts and get you a new vcr!

      • True, the vast majority are POST certified, but I think we all know how low that bar is.

        Of the pool of available coppers, the best and brightest aren’t going to be campus police – except maybe for the unlimited-20-year-old-buffet and the easiest access to drugs.

        Wait a minute.

        Now that I think about it…

        • 30 years ago, starting pay for a Michigan State Police Academy graduate at Michigan State University was slightly more than average starting pay for a Michigan State University graduate with a BS in Computer Science. I doubt the situation has changed much since then.

          If you think only society’s losers would take that job, you’re nuts.

        • Here it is common for employees of the institution including police officers to get a free education.

          That is why one former campus officer I know has multiple advanced degrees.
          Decent pay and free education. Who wouldn’t sign up for that.

        • It’s not hard to make 6 figures in CHP, LAPD, LASO, San Diego PD, etc. CA “campus cops” make roughly $35-$40 K / year. CA cops are making double or more what campus cops make. And campus cops are making more than armored trucking guards.

          Different parts of the nation have different pay scales and standards. I’m not saying that all campus cops are idiots – to do so would simply be a nasty form of discrimation – but CA campus cops often aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. If you’d had to clean up their scenes, take over their arrests (Expo PD), or charge them with crimes like we have, I’d tend to think you’d agree.

          If not, I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep over it.

        • Speaking of a low bar: What do you call a person who graduates last in his or her medical school class? Doctor.

        • @Accur81

          CHP: starting officer’s base pay is $74,700. 5.0% increases occur yearly until the top step base salary of $92,640 is reached.

          LAPD: starting officer’s base pay is $60,552.

          LASO: starting deputy salary between $56,424 and $62,904 depending on high school or university educated. Max Deputy IV between $66,720 and $87,516

          SDPD: $54K starting to $76K max.

          https://www.chp.ca.gov/chp-careers/officer/why-become-a-chp-officer/salary-and-benefits-officer
          http://per.lacity.org/psb/lapd_salary.htm
          http://www.lawenforcementedu.net/california/los-angeles-county/
          http://cao.lacounty.gov/pdf/alpha.pdf
          http://www.sandiego.gov/police/recruiting/benefits.shtml

          I guess you could work a ton of overtime and make more, but that’s true of any job, so you should compare apples with apples. Doesn’t seem like an awful lot of money for California where it is expensive to live. My sister lives just south of LA and a modest 4 bedroom house is $1 million!

          What about other states? As I said, MSP trooper makes $44K and tops out at $66K after twenty years.

        • Be fair, here, guys. 30 years ago was 1985. Computer science majors didn’t make that much as starting salary, in fact the degree was stupid, since whatever you learned this year was ancient history and useless next year. Now, *20* years ago was a different matter, computers had taken over the world in the previous 10 years, and I guarantee there was no cop around with a salary to compete. So, in my infinite wisdom, I declare you are both right!

        • “Here it is common for employees of the institution including police officers to get a free education.”

          Same here. 5 miles down the road from me is a nice little private collage that has a large collection of Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings.

          http://www.flsouthern.edu/home.aspx

          One of my buddies had a job there cutting the grass.

          Job didn’t pay that great but one of the bennies was free college education for his 5 kids.

          Such a deal. He was a happy camper. Bose ANR headphones on under a straw hat and working on his tan…

      • “– but CA campus cops often aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. If you’d had to clean up their scenes, take over their arrests (Expo PD), or charge them with crimes like we have, I’d tend to think you’d agree.”

        As you mention, campus cops are usually at the bottom end of police-work hierarchy. There’s not much upward job mobility out of a campus cop job so most of the people who end up as campus cops stay there or sift their way out of police-work alltogether. Most campus cops are there because even small-town cop-shops won’t hire them. Basically, there are two kind of campus cops. Some are perfectly nice kinds of folk who’ll happily escort women to their cars, jump-start dead batteries on rainy days, and make sure buzzed students get back to their dorm rooms. As for the others . . .

        • At the Florida State U library shooting here in Tallahassee, the FSU PD and TPD fired 68 rounds at May. It is hard to tell who was the worst regarding contagious fire.

      • In this context, WTF does “sworn” mean? Do they swear to protect and defend the constitution of the US? What do they “swear” to?

        • Here in Florida it means a detailed background check and an anal-cavity level polygraph.

        • In addition to what Geof said, they have “sworn an oath” and have full arrest powers to enforce the laws of Florida.

  5. Hmm. I wonder what the annual Clery Report would indicate for the University of Rhode Island?

    As far as people like Mr. Annunciate are concerned, since they advocate for unarmed police, we must hold them to their own standard. If a violent criminal ever attacks Mr. Annunciate or his home, he will enjoy a police response without firearms … along with their inability to stop the violent attacker.

  6. I don’t consider campus police to be cops. They are basically glorified security guards. Exposition Park “police” in LA, CA have been fired in droves for incompetence, sexual assault, etc. There was a campus cop somewhere who shot himself and subsequently made up a story that he was attacked. He sent a bunch of real cops on a wild goose chase.

    It’s kind of like Army vs. USMC infantry – lower standards equals lower performance.

    • That last sentence shows your ignorance. In many states campus police have the same training and are sworn officers just like municipal police.

      • Despite my weak attempt at humor above, Accur81 is correct.

        POST Certified or not, there’s a pecking order. If you’re any good at all, you go to a decent dept and clock them dollars. If you’re mediocre, or have a dirty jacket, you go small muni and write tickets. If you really suck, then you are Paul Blart, Campus Police.

        • Bingo. There are exceptions, but most follow those rules. I joined a major police agency with high entrance requirements and a good reputation for those reasons. Plus, the salary was pretty good.

          If I didn’t make the cut, I would have stayed with Dunbar Armored as a driver / guard / crew chief for $11 / hour.

      • There may be yet another element at play re campus cops. Universities are notoriously, terminally PC, and I expect that extends to their employment policies. The only campus cops I have ever had any significant contact with was the UT-Austin bunch when I was in law school. They were overwhelmingly very young, and although they were also overwhelmingly white, about half were –honest, no foolin’ here–noticeably diminutive females. I was not filled with confidence when I saw a line of campus cops deployed in the expectation that a demonstration might get out of hand. The contrast between the campus cops and the regular Austin PD who were also on the scene was pretty stark. My guess is that Accur81 is on to something.

        • And the entrance bar for becoming hired as an Austin cop is embarrassingly low. You don’t even need a high school deploma to hired as an Austin cop. Last I checked, all that’s needed is having “attended” high school. With standards that low, and given the high pay scales of the Austin PD, the people going to work as campus cops aren’t going to be the best and brightest.

    • Hmm, I usually agree with most of the stuff you post but I have to take umbrage with your last sentence. I was a Military Police officer in the Army for 7 years. We went through the exact same school, on the same base, with the same instructors as the Marine MP’s. There are no lower standards in the Army, we just have more people, and thus more potential for lesser qualified individuals to slip through. If I was going to do civilian law enforcement I’d probably go for campus police somewhere. I’m older now, and a disabled vet so I don’t need as much excitement in my life as I used to, and campus police seems like a pretty nice gig.

  7. “…It’s not a place where guns are necessary.”

    Then what is the problem with the Campus Cops carrying then? If they want to go around with an extra whatever number of pounds hanging off their utility belt why would you want to stop them?

    Unless…..

    You are one of those people that think the gun is the problem and it’s very existence is going to be trouble.

  8. Wow! Then why do they need campus “police” at all. I always call unarmed security guards “Uniformed Doormen”. I think doormen are more affective.

    • Exactly! If these Campus Police are not armed then what is the point of paying their salaries and benefits package? Either arm them or get rid of these positions. It is always “peaceful” until it’s not. Gun free zones are killing zones for crazies, radical Muslims, etc.. To stop someone with a gun they need someone on the other side with a gun, more experience, bravery and a better shot. Seems like a few AR-15s with scopes in lockboxes around the campus would be a good idea as well as sidearms.

      • At some of the Florida Universities, parking services is a separate entity. I have seen police cars get ticketed.

      • And a shoulder to cry on when Buffy gets her laptop stolen…

        Somebody’s gotta write that report for dad’s insurance company to pay…

  9. On one hand, I can’t discount the rather retarded reasoning and statement. On the other hand, if they don’t allow law-abiding citizens and legal residents to have a firearm, why extend that “privilege” to law enforcement?

    • Except that the University of Rhode Island is not in Providence. URI is in Kingston, RI, a sleepy village of 5400 people about 30 miles (and a million years) south of Providence. The only crimes in Kingston occur in and around the University.

  10. Does that mean the weed users need guns to protect themselves from the cops?

    • Of course I’m for legal carry by everyone. And as an old guy who got high in the 70’s and 80’s I say protect yourself.

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