By V4 Agency
A university student has called on his classmates to rile law enforcement officers by filing bogus reports in order to keep them busy.
Anti-police sentiment has grown tremendously in the US after George Floyd’s death last May. Many have called for the abolition or defunding the police, and even engaged in violence against the officers. The most recent example of this animosity towards police occurred at the Minnesota University, where a member of a student association called on her peers to annoy campus law enforcement officers.
Lauren Meyers is the chief financial officer of the Minnesota Student Association. During a video conference with fellow members of the MSA, Meyers instructed her fellow student government members to use several tactics to “annoy the s*** out of” campus law enforcement.
When one of those present asked the girl about her thoughts on how authorities should be annoyed, she replied, “make their lives hell.” In Meyers’ view this can be achieved by completely overwhelming police capacities, for instance by inundating departments with false public calls requiring a police response.
The Minnesota Police Association, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and the Law Enforcement Labor Services responded to the harassment with a joint statement. It warned, among other things, that a false emergency call can be a criminal offense and the perpetrator could be severely punished for it. Brian Peters, executive director of the police association, also added that this conduct hurts the university community as a whole, who rely on the help of police in an emergency.
The association will use the help of an outside agency to conduct a criminal investigation into the incident and decide whether or not to press charges.
However, some members in the student government disagreed with Meyers’ comments. Two members denounced her statements and called on other members to condemn Lauren Meyers’ calls. Andrew Knuppel and Morgan McElroy pointed out that law enforcement on university campus could be improved in the other way around: if elected student representatives teamed up with the police. The university also condemned Lauren Meyers’ statements.