University Apologizes for ‘Implicit Racial Bias’ After Students Report 'Gun' to Police

ashley.rae | May 9, 2017
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Now liberal paranoia about seeing guns on campus is wrong if the person suspected to be carrying a gun happens to be black.

Colgate University is apologizing for the “implicit racial bias” that led students to report to police seeing a man carrying what they believed to be a weapon on campus. 

Syracuse.com reports on the evening of May 1, two students reported seeing a “shirtless black man” running into a building with what appeared to be a weapon and a shirt in one hand, a cell phone in the other.

After the college was placed on lockdown, authorities determined the weapon in question wasn’t a gun, but a glue gun a student was using for an art project.

President of Colgate University Brian W. Casey immediately issued an apology in the form of a campus-wide email for the “implicit racial bias” and “profiling” that caused the students to report the man to police:

"It is important that we understand the role that implicit racial bias had in the initial reporting of and responses to the events of last night. I want to make sure we speak with those who made and received the initial report to understand the role this played.

"More egregiously, perhaps, was the effect profiling had on the response of safety officers and other University offices to these events."

Casey noted that campus security director Bill Ferguson, who was part of the on-campus police investigation of the incident, has been placed on administrative leave while the university conducts a review.

While Casey issued an apology for the "profiling" and the university's response, security professionals state the school acted appropriately when faced with the prospect of a gun on campus.

Madison County Sheriff Allen Riley, who was on campus during the lockdown, said he didn’t see any sort of racial bias:

“I'm a black male, and I would know if there was racial bias,” he told Syracuse.com. “The color of the person's skin is not something we look into -- we just get a call that there is a person with a possible weapon.”

“A person with a gun is a person with a gun -- whether that person is red, green, white or of any gender,” he explained.

S. Daniel Carter, a national security consultant, told Syracuse.com, “On its face, it looks like the college security chief acted appropriately, unless there is something else going on the public doesn't know about."

“Colgate's (emergency) response is pretty much textbook,” he explained. “What they did follows the legacy of the Virginia Tech shooting.”

Jim White, a public safety lecturer from Indiana University Purdue University, said, “Public safety responded and took appropriate action based on the facts provided.”

“The subject being African-American is incidental,” he said. “This was public safety acting prudently in an effort to protect students and others on the campus.”

Do you believe Colgate University's police acted appropriately with its lockdown and emergency response to a potential gun threat? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. 

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