In Wednesday's edition of The Post, a Mr. Prosper Yao Tsikata made some rather serious accusations concerning the students of Ohio University, especially those among us who enjoy the festivities in our corner of Ohio. At several points, Mr. Tsikata makes rather blunt accusations that the reason for the noise ordinance is due to a prevalence of such drugs as cocaine
heroin and marijuana causing out of control noise levels.
For all of Mr. Tsikata's talk of students' democratic right to hold a referendum on the proposed noise ordinance, perhaps he should be concerned with our right to due process.
But of course, why worry about actually having any factual evidence for his claims about substance-generated rapture when he has a point to make? Why worry about expanding police authority to such an extent that it allows them to shut down any party above that of a chess club meeting when he has a point to make? No offense to my chess-playing comrades - I, too, enjoy the game - but that was a point about noise, not enjoyment. Why worry about making serious accusations about entire segments of a population? He needs his noise crackdown.
If the police actively suspect illegal drug use on the premises of a college party, the students have far more to worry about than violating current or future noise ordinance levels. The police would also be well within their jurisdiction, presently without the added noise ordinance, to shut such a party down immediately.
That is not what is being discussed here. What is being discussed is a measure to allow police to shut down parties that they otherwise wouldn't be able to. Mr. Tsikata is not only asking for, but demanding, that police be allowed to shut down any party without even the presence of a complaint. Surely if we students of Ohio University were engaging in the kind of substance-generated rapture that Mr. Tsikata implies, we would be making noise on the level that would lead to a complaint being filed.
Sadly for Mr. Tsikata, and like-minded individuals, their rather authoritarian outlook on life doesn't measure up with reality.
Frank Bumb is a sophomore studying journalism and political science and former Post reporter.
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Opinion
Letter to the Editor
