AB 1936: CALIFORNIA CAMPUS COPS TO BE DISARMED, MSW DEGREE REQUIRED

By Ima Schmuck / The Schalotte / November 30, 2011

Reacting to the pepper spraying of students on the UC Davis campus, California State Assemblywoman Sheila Washington-Jackson, D-Berkeley, whose son Emanuel was one of the students, said she would introduce legislation that will prohibit campus cops from carrying any type of weapon.” True to her word, Washington-Jackson has introduced Assembly Bill 1936 that will prohibit California’s campus police from being armed with any type of weapon.

But AB 1936 goes far beyond the disarming of campus cops. Washington-Jackson’s bill will require that all new campus police hires possess a Master of Social Work Degree (MSW) and that all current campus cops must obtain an MSW degree within four years of the bill’s inception. AB 1936 has nine co-sponsors, all Democrats.

Washington-Jackson told reporters that college students are our children, not hardened street thugs and career criminals. “If they are breaking any rules, they need to be counseled, not pepper sprayed or clubbed by the police,” she said. "Police officers with MSW degrees will be better positioned to fulfill their role as campus peace officers.”

Gary Schmidtlap, president of the California Campus Police Association (CCPA) was quick to respond. “Is it any wonder that police officers vote overwhelmingly Republican,” he said. “This woman [Washington-Jackson] is nuts! We have robberies and rapes occurring on our campuses and our officers often have to grapple with steroid pumped-up drunken 320 pound football tackles and 230 pound 6-10 basket ball players. I suppose Assemblywoman Washington-Jackson and her co-sponsoring Democrats expect us to subdue those drunks by rolling up those MSW degrees and shooting spit wads at them.”

Schmidtlap added that “I’m surprised AB 1936 does not require us to have long hair and beards and to wear uniforms of tattered jeans and ‘Down With Capitalism!’ silk-screened T-shirts.”

UC Riverside sociology professor Samuel Bernstein praised Washington-Jackson for introducing AB 1936. Bernstein, whose daughter was one of the pepper sprayed students, had called on his fellow faculty members to support the disarming of all UC System campus cops. “When our children stand up for the 99% that are being oppressed and exploited by the 1%, they deserve better than to become the victims of police brutality,” Bernstein said.

UC Berkeley sociology/criminology professor David Smith also praised Washington-Jackson’s bill. “We finally have a lawmaker who understands the sociology of the college community,” he said. “Colleges and Universities are institutions of higher education where the police should not be allowed to interfere in the teaching-learning experience. Student protests are part of that experience. There is no reason to have armed storm troopers on campus and unarmed MSW cops can become a part of that teaching-learning experience.”

Legislative observers do not believe that the disarming of campus police can pass in both houses of the legislature. However, they do think that the MSW requirement has a good chance of becoming California law.