Police, Students Discuss Racism

Thirteen Police officers and more than 30 high school students met last night at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in a discussion that often erupted into angry dialogue.

Rindge and Latin junior Belinda Augustin organized and moderated the meeting with help from school counselors and volunteers.

The meeting, which lasted more than 90 minutes, follows a summer of marked tension between students and police highlighted by a racial harassment complaint leveled at the police by a Black student.

Cambridge Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72 supported the student, but a police review board cleared the officers involved.

At the meeting, Steve Williams, chief of the police's Juvenile Department, said students lack an understanding of the police's role in the community

The consensus among students, however, was that police simply mistreat them.

"Cops are not approaching us in a respectable way," said Rindge and Latin MarshaRobinson.

At the end of the meeting, the participantscompiled a list of suggestions to help police andstudents communicate more effectively.

One proposal, a program offering students achance to ride along with police in their patrolcars, drew the most excited response.

Both students and police left the meetingpraising the discussion, although both groupsexpressed only guarded hope that relations willimprove.

"A lot of things came out that were good," saidDetective Spencer Franklin.

Asked about the specific programs proposed,however, Franklin said, "We've done all that andwe're back here again."

"I think some of the police are just going togo home and say that we don't understand them,"said Tony Clark, a Rindge and Latin junior whopersuaded students and police to sit closer toeach other in the meeting. "A lot of people aren'tlistening; they're not hearing the ideas."

The group agreed to meet again next month toforge a partnership to solve problems betweenstudents and police.

"I don't want us just to come to thesemeetings, run our mouths like water, get everybodymad, and go home and nothing happens," Augustinsaid. "We're trying to form a relationship.

At the end of the meeting, the participantscompiled a list of suggestions to help police andstudents communicate more effectively.

One proposal, a program offering students achance to ride along with police in their patrolcars, drew the most excited response.

Both students and police left the meetingpraising the discussion, although both groupsexpressed only guarded hope that relations willimprove.

"A lot of things came out that were good," saidDetective Spencer Franklin.

Asked about the specific programs proposed,however, Franklin said, "We've done all that andwe're back here again."

"I think some of the police are just going togo home and say that we don't understand them,"said Tony Clark, a Rindge and Latin junior whopersuaded students and police to sit closer toeach other in the meeting. "A lot of people aren'tlistening; they're not hearing the ideas."

The group agreed to meet again next month toforge a partnership to solve problems betweenstudents and police.

"I don't want us just to come to thesemeetings, run our mouths like water, get everybodymad, and go home and nothing happens," Augustinsaid. "We're trying to form a relationship.