The College Fix

Armed police are ‘ticking time bomb,’ one student says

Leaders at Portland State University have elected to delay a decision on whether or not campus police will be stripped of their weapons. Activists urged the university to disarm campus law enforcement, claiming that armed police are “dangerous.”

The school’s trustees said “they will take the summer to review the university’s campus safety plan,” OPB reports. The school’s interim president “said in a meeting…that students and faculty will have time to offer opinions on whether to disarm campus officers after they return to PSU in the fall.” There are reportedly “more than 100 recommendations” stemming from an independent review of the campus’s safety published last year.

According to KGW8, student protesters at that meeting demanded the immediate disarmament of campus police, claiming that the armed cops represented a significant danger on campus.

One said that armed police “are a ticking time bomb,” while another stated that police with guns are “dangerous,” citing an incident when campus police shot and killed an armed 45-year-old man last year. One witness said the man was simply trying to retrieve his dropped gun, while a forensic expert said the man was pointing his gun at police. A video footage analysis by The College Fix indicated the latter possibility.

Earlier this year the state government proposed a bill that would have stripped campus law enforcement of their firearms at numerous public universities. That bill stalled in the legislature.

MORE: PSU considers disarming police after disputed officer-involved shooting

IMAGE: RUCHUDA BOONPLIEN / Shutterstock.com

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter