GWU Arms Its Police, Despite Kumbaya Objections

WASHINGTON - Aug. 23, 2023 - PRLog -- Just before classes begin, George Washington University [GWU] has defiantly announced that it is moving ahead to arm some of its police officers, despite somewhat illogical opposition from a small number of students and faculty.  Community Feedback Continues to Guide Campus Safety Planning (https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/community-feedback-continues-guide-campus-safety-planning)

Curiously, this move was not reported in GWU's student newspaper, nor in the customary email notices sent to the faculty, notes public interest law professor John Banzhaf of the GWU Law School.

When GWU first announced that it was going to arm only some of its police officers - in contrast to most universities where all of its officers are armed - some student organizations also objected to these plans, arguing that arming even some GWU police would endanger everyone except for rich White suburbanites.

Also, some 200 of its faculty claimed that having some GWU police armed is "more likely to reduce safety rather than enhance it."

But this assertion by faculty members is contradicted by the overwhelming majority of GWU's peer universities - as well as a clear majority of all universities - to arm their police, notes  Banzhaf, a former security office and security consultant who recently published a detailed study (https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=202210...)  of mass shootings on campus.

But the extent to which faculty opinion on this controversial issue is well informed is suggested by a recent survey which showed that virtually nobody on the faculty even knows how to lock classroom doors in the event of an active-shooter-on-campus alert, and that the Faculty Senate has refused to take any position on a variety of safety-related proposals over a period of many years, says Banzhaf.

Moreover, as the professor points out, deranged-shooter-on-campus situations elsewhere have had to be resolved by the use of deadly force – either to neutralize the shooter or to pressure him to shoot himself – and not by deep empathy, dignity illumination and enhancement, intervention skills, nonviolent communication, or restorative justice and  weaponless civilian protection units.

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf