Ric Hernandez’s column “Our failure at Elevate” (Oct. 6) is nothing more than a call to violence, guilty of the very same brash bravado of which he accuses the NHPD.

Hernandez’s message is stated simply enough: Fight the police. No matter how he seeks to romanticize his appeal, lamenting the “grave injustice” to the tased student and heaping “shame” upon us for our “collective inaction,” his words should be taken with a grain of salt.

Obviously, the police overreacted; it was evident from the start, perhaps a natural consequence of sending the team that raids drug houses into a club on a three-hour-old report of underage drinking. By all accounts except for their own, the police were rude, aggressive and perhaps even guilty of a crime themselves. And thankfully, this issue is being resolved — our masters, deans and frocos have been there for the victims from the start, encouraging them to file claims and press for accountability within hours of the raid.

But Hernandez is apparently not satisfied. “What good is our elite education,” he asks, “if, when faced with grave injustice … we are paralyzed?” I pose the same question, but with perhaps a bit more gravitas: What good is our elite education if, when faced with a stupid mistake, we invite beatings, tasings and recognition as a threat to public safety?

If “wicked forces” demand to see my ID, I don’t feel my “basic human rights” have been infringed upon. Everyone at Elevate saw the idiocy of the events that transpired, and perhaps by the end of the night, as suggested by the simple release of the students in “time-out,” the NHPD did as well. If Hernandez thinks we are cowards for keeping cool, he can take his insurrection elsewhere.

Jack Newsham ’14

Oct. 6