Kristen Boyle’s article in the Nov. 6 Nexus (“Crunched Cars Cops’ Fault”), which blamed property damage over Halloween on the police, is nothing short of a complete joke.

During the week leading up to the holiday, almost every editorial in this newspaper was complaining about the police. People said they didn’t need all of the upcoming noise and festival ordinances – that they weren’t infants and deserved to be treated like adults. The police responded by ignoring them and importing additional law enforcement.

I was one of the people walking around DP during Halloween, and I saw officers yelling at people for stepping on cars and monitoring the choke points on the street. I saw them giving out citations and tending to people who needed assistance. But when there are tens of thousands of people on a single block, there’s very little that can be done to stop every misdemeanor. In spite of the student population’s bitching, the police were not, as Boyle put it, “harassing and hindering.”

It’s obscene that people here have the nerve to complain about the presence of law enforcement, then turn around and blame them for not doing enough.

Tell me, how many officers would we need to make sure that no car is stepped on? Then go ahead and tell me that you would have been cool knowing this many cops were going to be lurking around, ruining your fun. It’s regrettable that there was property damage, but it was inevitable. To blame it on the police for not being in the right place at the right time isn’t only absurd, it’s also self-serving and ignorant. The fact that Boyle complains about the enforcement of public drinking and noise violations makes it even more idiotic that she expects every other little infraction to be tended to on Halloween – that is, if said infraction directly concerns her. Give me a break.

I’m not trying to be an ass, but look – you can’t have it both ways.

If you’re going to bitch about police coming on Halloween, don’t turn around and blame them for not doing enough. If you’re going to bitch about the overzealousness of their enforcement, don’t moan when they finally back off and something of yours ends up being collateral damage. Maybe the reason why we, as students here, aren’t always taken seriously is that we don’t always deserve to be. Get off your pedestals and think a little – it’s not that hard.

Justin Platt is a sophomore CCS math major.