Letter from a Conway Holding Cell
Issue date: 10/20/06 Section: Opinion
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The Faulkner County Police Department has garnered a fairly poor reputation around the Hendrix campus. With their botching of the Pharcyde concert being only the most recent example of their seeming disdain for the Hendrix populous, one would seem to have all the evidence needed to draw the conclusion that we Hendrixites are hated by the whole of the police force. However, after a recent run in with them by myself and a few fellow students at a small protest we were having, I'm glad to report that they are, in reality, a crackerjack group of folks.
When we first arrived to protest the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, Conway's finest were already stationed across the street, ready to show their support: they even had a camera trained on us, to make sure we didn't get hurt by any nasty people that might not like our message of love and tolerance. As our protest began, our first interaction came as one of us attempted to sit in at the Marines recruitment center. The officer inside kindly asked her to step outside in order that he might write her a warning in an environment more comfortable for both of them. However, by some strange coincidence, just as she stepped out the door was locked behind her! But this did not hinder the protest; although all the recruitment offices were closed we continued picketing up and down the block.
As the day went on, the squad cars began to slowly disperse. As sad as we were to see our fans go, we knew they must have pressing business elsewhere. For a few hours we simply waited around, without seeing much of our friends. The only exceptions to this were the occasional drive by, and one gentleman in a truck with a government license plate who pulled into the parking lot across the street, pulled out a large camera, and began snapping pictures of us. We put on our best smiles for him, but for some reason he showed no interest in coming over to talk to us; he simply left as quickly as he had come.
After we had waited outside for a number of hours, someone finally showed up and opened the military recruitment office. But when they did, our piggy friends were nowhere in sight! Esther went ahead inside and began taking the tests to determine if she was capable of serving her country. After passing the test with an outstanding score (a 70; the Arkansas average is a 30, nationally a 40), she revealed that she was, in fact, one of those wicked, heathen homosexuals. Her application was immediately denied, and that's when a group of us came in and sat down in the offices. We didn't know for sure how long we would be there, but imagine the joy we felt when we found out the popo people were being phoned right that second!
When we first arrived to protest the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, Conway's finest were already stationed across the street, ready to show their support: they even had a camera trained on us, to make sure we didn't get hurt by any nasty people that might not like our message of love and tolerance. As our protest began, our first interaction came as one of us attempted to sit in at the Marines recruitment center. The officer inside kindly asked her to step outside in order that he might write her a warning in an environment more comfortable for both of them. However, by some strange coincidence, just as she stepped out the door was locked behind her! But this did not hinder the protest; although all the recruitment offices were closed we continued picketing up and down the block.
As the day went on, the squad cars began to slowly disperse. As sad as we were to see our fans go, we knew they must have pressing business elsewhere. For a few hours we simply waited around, without seeing much of our friends. The only exceptions to this were the occasional drive by, and one gentleman in a truck with a government license plate who pulled into the parking lot across the street, pulled out a large camera, and began snapping pictures of us. We put on our best smiles for him, but for some reason he showed no interest in coming over to talk to us; he simply left as quickly as he had come.
After we had waited outside for a number of hours, someone finally showed up and opened the military recruitment office. But when they did, our piggy friends were nowhere in sight! Esther went ahead inside and began taking the tests to determine if she was capable of serving her country. After passing the test with an outstanding score (a 70; the Arkansas average is a 30, nationally a 40), she revealed that she was, in fact, one of those wicked, heathen homosexuals. Her application was immediately denied, and that's when a group of us came in and sat down in the offices. We didn't know for sure how long we would be there, but imagine the joy we felt when we found out the popo people were being phoned right that second!
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