Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
Campus Blotter: Rhode Island Cops Promote Student Parties
Friday, January 29, 2010 at 9:00 am
Hide your textbooks and crack open a beer: Campus Blotter is back in session. This week we learn how a five-year police crusade against college parties earned support in federal court last week, and why it probably won't matter...
The action centers around students at the University of Rhode Island and their proclivity toward alcohol-related festivities.
According to the U.S. District Court ruling, cops in the town of Narragansett are within their right to prohibit gatherings of five or more people that involve excessive noise, public drunkenness, and other factors associated with quality parties.
The penalty: Offending houses are slapped with an orange "nuisance" sticker that must be displayed through the end of the school year, presumably so that passersby can readily discern where the action is.
Hundreds of homes have earned the sticker since the so-called "Scarlet Letter" ordinance was passed in 2005, including 52 so far this school year.
The ordinance was challenged by several students who cited an invasion of privacy.
Judge William Smith responded in his ruling that "This [argument] holds no more water than one that claims an overnight parking ban in a city park is unconstitutional because the parkers may be having sex in the back seat."
Legal analysts were unable to decipher the point behind Smith's analogy, but overnight parking citations in Narragansett have spiked in the days following his ruling.
Study last week's Campus Blotter: Mild-Mannered Law Student Gerald Ung Shoots Jock Six Times.
Tags: Campus Blotter, Rhode Island
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