Students Tell of Security Encounter 

To the Editor:

Last Saturday four men allegedly stole food from Dascomb and fled. Concurrently, we, three black women, committed the crime of walking home from the ’Sco past that unavoidable building. This apparently explains the presence of Security on Elm Street, where we first saw the “officers.” After arriving at South we stopped, provoked by the abominable desire to engage in conversation. SUDDENLY, Security appeared again, pulled up the driveway by which we were standing, and slowed down to two miles an hour as they passed us and stared.
Feeling slightly offended, we began to ask the officers, in the ‘loud tones known to women of our racial orientation,’ why they were staring at us and what it was that they wanted. The officers pulled off, then turned into the alcove on the west side of South and turned around. They returned to park right in front of us and stared hard as if to say, “I can stare at you any time I want!” We again protested, and this time the staring lasted approximately 20-30 seconds. At this point the reasonable black man in the backseat of the car convinced the two white men in the front, using hand gestures that were apparent to us, to pull off and leave us alone. We stood shocked, and then decided that we were not going to take the treatment that we had just received lying down. 
We decided to call security to report to them that we had been harassed … by security. We called and reported the story to a female dispatcher, giving our names and the location of the event, at which point we were speedily put on hold. Next a male got on the phone and asked us to repeat our story. We asked several times why he had been put on the telephone, and he eventually said that it was because he was this lady’s supervisor. Sounded valid. Little did we know that this was the male in the passenger seat who had just helped give us the Al Pacino “You talking to me?!” treatment. 
The man asked us to retell the story and stopped us several times to ask for details. He asked us to describe the officers as if he were taking this for his records, and then asked how long ago the event happened. At the end of the interrogation, he said “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about because I was there.” The officer then proceeded to use something from the story we had just told him –– that my friends and I had yelled at the car for staring at us –– to give an excuse: they had stopped to gaze at us because they thought we wanted a ride. 
It may seem odd to the reader that the guards did not ask if we wanted a ride, never rolled their windows down or said words to us. In fact, they could never have fit all three of us into the car because there was already a rather built security guard in the back seat. 
Later the officer informed us that the reason they had come near us was to look for the four men who had stolen some food from Dascomb. After arguing a bit, we asked if our complaint had been recorded and hung up. Was this destined to make the Security Notebook, reading:
March 18, 12:30 a.m. Officers laughed at a complaint that three black women received unwanted attention from Security guards outside of South. No one was notified.
For our own condolences, we are petitioning that the people who did steal the food please cut us our fair share of the pilfered goods. We’ll be eating it outside South; any hungry Security guards can come by and ask for a piece.

–Yvonne O. Etaghene
College sophomore

–Tarika Powell 
College junior

–Catara Vinson
College junior