Letter to the Editor: Duke Police punish good samaritan

As Duke's social scene has been demolished, Duke's administration, as well as the Duke University Police Department, have consistently claimed that the safety of the students remains the primary concern. Once again, the actions of individuals within these organizations prove contradictory.

 This Saturday night, my four roommates and I had a social gathering at our house about a mile off of West Campus. Surprisingly, although a keg full of beer was present, we are happy to report that there was no sickness due to alcohol, no damaged property, no angry neighbors and no drunk drivers. It is this last point that caused trouble for one of our guests.

 In an attempt to be responsible, one of our guests made certain that no individuals would operate a motor vehicle while under the influence. For this purpose, she drove seven individuals back to campus in her car equipped for five. During this trip, she was pulled over and given a citation for having an overcrowded car at the entrance to East Campus.

 While all actions thus far are undoubtedly valid, it was the police officers actions at this point that anger me. At no point did the officer ask the driver, or any of the passengers, if they had been drinking.

 Instead, he told the driver to remain, and ordered the rest of the passengers to walk home. In addition, he never asked where these individuals lived. Would he have had made them walk had he known they lived off of East Campus? Luckily, this was not the case, and all those individuals involved returned safely to their rooms.

 Once again, the University is unwilling to take responsibility for an environment that it has created. An individual was willing to take responsibility for the transportation of peers, but was punished nonetheless.

 Given that the officer never even inquired about whether these individuals had consumed alcohol, it would seem that DUPS would rather have had the least drunk of the other six individuals in the car to drive home as well. At least this way, we would not have had extra people in the car.

 It is time for the University to start providing shuttle service to the Durham community. Otherwise, events like this will continue to occur, or worse yet, the already dangerous amounts of drunk driving will increase. While my friend was forced to deal with an extremely rude police officer, the more frustrating fact is that she was forced to do this while trying to provide safe transportation for individuals that the University has pushed off campus.