Recruiter, SDS Argue on Police

About a dozen members of SDS and Progressive Labor joined a police recruiting session held yesterday afternoon at the Office of Graduate and Career Plans (OG AND CP).

The students debated for two hours the role of the policeman in American society with David Durk, who is currently on a one-year leave from the New York City Police Department to serve as a visiting fellow at the Justice Department's National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.

Durk is seeking to recruit policemen from Eastern liberal arts colleges, hoping to improve the caliber of urban police forces.

"If you're concerned about the problems of American society, as a cop you have the power to affect them on a personal basis," Durk said.

"I don't think any cop from any liberal arts university will act any differently from a working-class cop," said one demonstrator. "It doesn't matter if you get Hare Krishna people into police uniforms if they're ordered to do something by someone else."

"Of course, if you feel that any action you take is a defense of the state in the abstract, then clearly police work isn't for you," Durk said.