‘Sleepy’ students awakened by MIP toting officers

The purpose of this column is to express an urgent concern of mine that has caused me a great deal of distress in recent days.
As everyone knows, the weekend of Nov. 10 was a source of great concern for Mount Pleasant citizens long before the Central vs. Western football game actually occurred. The threat of potential rioting and/or public disturbance was a hazard that officials made clear that they were prepared to handle. However, when reading the article in a previous edition of CM LIFE regarding the measures that were going to be taken to ensure a safe weekend for all, I did not realize that the safety they were speaking of was going to be at the expense of my rights.
Though may of my friends were spending the Friday night before the big game out partying, I decided to stay in my apartment at Timber Creek since three of my close friends from out of town were coming to stay the weekend.
The four of us as well as my roommate talked and played cards most of the evening, and before we knew it, the time was well after midnight. Nevertheless, we assumed that since it was a Friday night and also Western Weekend that it wouldn’t be a problem if we kept our radio playing.
Around 3 a.m. we all began winding down and getting ready for bed. At approximately 3:30 a.m. there was a knock at our door and when my roommate’s sister looked out the peephole to see who was knocking, it was covered with someone’s hand. When she asked who was there, a male voice replied that it was Scott. Although she know that we had a friend with the same name, she was not anxious to let anyone in since we were in our pajamas. She then cracked the door far enough to peer out at the man in question but quickly shut it again when she observed the intimidating sight of four police officers. At this time, the lead officer proceeded to kick in our door and enter our apartment followed by the three others.
By the time this occurred, my roommate was fast asleep in bed and my other two friends were sitting on the couch reading a magazine. We were hardly a formidable group of rioting students. We were just four females who wanted to go to bed. Although we had been drinking illegally, the only disturbance that we were guilty of causing was that we had been playing our radio, which is hardly grounds enough for four officers of the law to bust into our apartment, especially without announcing themselves. I was under the impression that we had moved out of the dorms last year, I didn’t know that Friday night quiet hours had gone into effect.
At any rate, the three of us were issued MIPs, and my roommate had to be woken up out of a dead sleep to blow into a Breathalyzer. They even accused my sober friend of drinking after she blew into it. When she adamantly explained that she had not consumed any alcohol that evening, the officer issuing the tests shook the device forcefully and walked out into the hall, saying that he had to “get this thing some fresh air.”
To many people, those few hundredths of a point that the faulty mechanism displayed for my sober friend could be the definitive evidence that would send them to jail. And this is what they are out there basing so many life-altering decisions on, an erratic device that “need some fresh air?”
I understand that extra measures need to be taken on such an emotionally intense weekend. I also realize that they safety of the public is of the utmost concern. But is playing music on a Friday night considered a threat to the city of Mount Pleasant? Does that give police officers the right to kick in the door at my own apartment, where I pay good money to live?
If it took four police officers to seize an apartment lodging five drowsy females, one of which was already asleep, what measures are they going to take when a real problem arises? Call in the troops?
It seems to me that the extra police brought in for the purpose of preventing public unrest seemed to get that incentive mixed up with another one, harassing the students.
Mary R. Proctor is a Gulliver sophomore.