Berklee hits sour note with stand on police access

Berklee College of Music hit all the wrong notes in banning Boston police from its restrooms, a declaration made during the school’s apology for allowing officers access before the May 31 protests against the killing of George Floyd that erupted in a night of rioting.

Berklee President Roger Brown said in a letter to the school community that allowing the officers inside perpetuated “feelings of oppression, silencing, and marginalization.” He added: “Let us assure you, this should not have happened, and going forward, it will not happen again.”

If the presence of BPD officers evoke feelings of oppression, silencing and marginalization, Berklee might need to take a look at its own Public Safety Department. According to the school’s web site, the PSD is “responsible for campus safety, security, law enforcement, and emergency response on campus.”

There are uniformed officers who patrol the grounds, and they are armed. PSD officers have carried firearms since 2017, and some students and area residents were not happy with the move.

“Being at Berklee I like to feel safe,” Berklee student Emily Gelineau told NBC Boston at the time. “Now that there are Berklee safety people carrying guns, it does make me feel a little more on the unsafe side to be honest in case anything does go wrong or there’s a misunderstanding.”

Berklee said it was about keeping people safe.

“If police are not armed and there’s an active shooter situation their guidelines insist they not go in,” Berklee Associate Vice President J. Curtis Warner, Jr. said.

Being prepared in case one needs to respond to a violent situation — much like the BPD does on the city’s streets.

The Berklee web site asserts that the PSD “maintains excellent working relationships with the

Boston Police Department; the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office; the Massachusetts State Police; other local, campus, state, and federal law enforcement agencies; and all appropriate segments of the criminal justice system.”

One would think that allowing BPD to use the facilities would be a courtesy extended to an agency that’s part of an “excellent working relationship.”

But this tone-deaf exercise in virtue signalling hasn’t done that relationship any favors.

Dennis Galvin, a former state police major and president of the Massachusetts Association for Professional Law Enforcement, said the school president is missing the point of the protests.

“If the object here is to improve policing, that statement is completely irrational,” Galvin said of Brown’s letter. “Some people want to make war with police. This letter is just playing to people’s emotions.”

Unfortunately, when emotions run high, reasoned thinking often goes by the wayside. Conflating lack of support for Black Lives Matter with letting the school’s facilities be used by members of the BPD is quite a stretch.

Will the school’s Public Safety Department be cutting ties with the various law enforcement agencies with which it works? Will Berklee disarm its campus police, so that students don’t feel oppressed or marginalized by the sight of uniformed officers bearing weapons?

The protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis last month rightly call for racial justice and police reform.

Unfortunately, a “throw the baby out with the bathwater” impulse is gaining ground as too many confuse the need for police reform with the notion that all cops are bad.

Berklee is one of jewels in the city’s crown. It’s better than this.