Apparently, the University of Massachusetts and Amherst police are slightly perturbed after Edward Davis, former Boston Police Commissioner, released a report describing the “Blarney Blowout” fiasco as a “a collective failure by the town, the university, and the students.”

According to Amherst Police Chief Scott P. Livingstone, the police “did the right thing” in response to the “Blarney Blowout,” and “the decision to use chemical munitions and/or riot helmets…at the time, was the right decision.”

Really? The right decision?

Mr. Livingstone, I have to disagree with you. Deploying chemical munitions, which is merely another way of stating that over 600 rounds of pepper spray and sting balls were used against college students, is fundamentally and unequivocally the wrong decision. This was not a riot. This was a gathering of college students, albeit a large and chaotic one. Now, the police could have attempted to gradually deescalate the situation. But they chose to deploy riot gear and pepper spray and to give the impression that they were a paramilitary group attempting to crush a resisting force. But, according to Mr. Livingstone, the police did “the right thing.”

Did the police do the right thing in Ferguson, Missouri, when they deployed tear gas and rubber bullets against largely peaceful protesters? Did the police do the right thing in Georgia when SWAT members threw a flash bang grenade into “baby Bou Bou’s” crib, permanently disfiguring his face?

If one were to look at the “Blarney Blowout” response in a wider context, that of rapid police militarization, the situation at UMass seems more concerning. Today, police see themselves as soldiers in a never-ending war against the forces of crime. They are not out to police; they are out to punish, to demean and to humiliate. If a university can not only respond to a college gathering with excessive force, but also defend that use of excessive force without question, where do we, the young people, stand in this situation?

In the future, UMass and Amherst police could start using actual tear gas. Who knows? It seems as if the average American is complacent in this rapid militarization of the police because politicians and the media frame it under the guise of increased security or combating the elusive specter of “terrorist threats.”

So, I ask the members of UMass and Amherst police, who are you out to serve and protect?

Anthony Maddaleni is a Collegian contributor. He can be reached at [email protected].