Students present on the roof of Tisch Library last Wednesday, an unofficial holiday to celebrate marijuana culture, have raised questions as to why Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) this year responded more vigilantly than they could remember in years past to students smoking marijuana.
According to TUPD Capt. Mark Keith, TUPD officers aimed to pursue marijuana smokers more persistently after having just that day learned of the tradition of gathering at midnight and 4:20 p.m. on the holiday.
Keith said that while TUPD has been aware for several years of the April 20 tradition and had stationed officers across the campus in response, it had not generally collected IDs or apprehended students specifically at a midnight or 4:20 p.m. gathering.
"We didn't know that there was a midnight hour gathering and a 4:20 gathering," Keith said. "We may have had people up there in the past throughout the day, just kind of checking on things."
"The only thing that changed is that our awareness was increased as to some of the events that occur up there," Keith said.
TUPD officers this year congregated on the roof at midnight and at 4:20 p.m. to break up gatherings of students smoking marijuana and, in one case, apprehend a student. Students who witnessed the events in previous years said that officers present did not discipline or approach anyone in the crowd and generally did not collect IDs at the midnight or 4:20 p.m. gatherings.
"Last year, when I was a freshman … they had a cop on a motorcycle stationed on the roof, and, quite literally, 200 to 300 people were smoking pot," Ben Van Meter, a sophomore who was also present on the roof this year, said.
Sophomore Alex Baskin, who serves as the co-president of the Tufts chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, offered a similar account.
"I do know that they [TUPD] have stood idly by before," Baskin said.
A group of approximately 150 to 200 students on Wednesday gathered on the roof shortly after midnight to celebrate, according to TUPD Sgt. Robert McCarthy. TUPD asked the students to get rid of their marijuana and disperse and disciplined one student who did not heed the officers' requests.
"One of the officers encountered someone who was ignoring him. … He walked away, the officer tried to take him by the elbow … he put out his arm towards him, hit him on the head or the hat … and he took that as an aggressive move," Keith said. "For the officer's safety, he took down and handcuffed him."
The student was later released, Keith and the student, who asked to remain anonymous due to the illegal nature of the activity, said.
Following the incident at midnight, Keith said, TUPD researched the holiday's traditions online.
"After the incident on Tuesday night, the next morning we did a little research and found on the Internet that in the two previous years, evidently, there was a large gathering up there as well," Keith said. "[We hadn't been aware of it] until we saw it on YouTube."
Keith said he decided to prepare approximately five officers to report to the roof at 4:20 after their research resulted in them finding that students planned to be there.
"We found some information that people were calling for a gathering at 4:20," Keith said. "I think there were maybe five of us that went up there … [and] I think some Student Services staff were there," Keith said.
Van Meter and other students present at the event in previous years said they were skeptical that the tradition had passed unnoticed by TUPD until this year.
"I think that's blatantly untrue," he said. "I know that that's been the tradition for a while. There's no conceivable way they didn't know this was a tradition."
Baskin was similarly unconvinced that TUPD could have been unaware of the annual 4/20 events.
"My understanding is that this has been going on for at least a handful of years," Baskin said. "This is hundreds of people we're talking about. … It happens at midnight; it happens again at 4:20."
The student who was handcuffed just after midnight on Wednesday said the TUPD officer who handcuffed him admitted that the officers have in the past felt uncomfortable about standing by without apprehending the smoking students.
McCarthy said TUPD provided the university with approximately 11 students' information and that the decision to punish them lies with the university.
"That's up to the Dean of Student [Affairs] Office," Keith said.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman could not be reached for comment.
