Princeton University has defied its title as the “Quiet Ivy” in recent months.
In November, a 32-hour sit-in of Nassau Hall led by the student group the Black Justice League was subject to persistent news coverage, including pieces in The New York Times and the New Yorker. And last month, following the arrest of one of Princeton’s professors, campus ignited once again in debate. As with the sit-in, the story went national.
It has been well reported by now that Imani Perry, an American Studies professor at Princeton, was arrested Feb. 7 after police officers pulled her over for speeding and subsequently discovered a warrant for her arrest. The warrant was for failure to appear in court for two unpaid parking tickets.
After she was taken to the Princeton police station to pay the tickets, Perry took to Twitter to recount her experience. She wrote that during her arrest, she was patted down by a male officer although a female officer was present, denied a phone call at the side of the road, and, at the police station, handcuffed to a table.
Perry, who is black, also discussed her experience with regard to her race. In one of her Twitter posts she wrote, “At any rate, I was afraid. Many women who look like me have a much more frightening end to such arrests.”
Perry’s tweets went viral, garnering media attention from the Daily Princetonian, the Washington Post and the Times. Amid the publicity, university president Christopher Eisgruber and the school’s African-American Studies Department released statements in support of Perry. The BJL, which had been mostly silent since November, also released a statement supporting Perry. The Mercer Country Prosecutor’s office opened an internal investigation of the police involved during Perry’s arrest.
Throughout the ordeal, Perry has been hesitant to talk to the press, giving only one interview to the Princeton Packet, but releasing two statements online. The second, posted Feb. 12, she titled The End, “Because I do not intend to speak on this incident in public any longer.”
Perry, who is scheduled to appear at Labyrinth Books March 10 for a panel discussion on race and democracy, may be through discussing her experience, but the debate over her arrest and its implications still hangs in the air on campus and in town.
“This is clearly is an issue that has divided the community,” said Jo Butler, a Princeton councilwoman. “It really has been astonishingly damaging.”
While opinions strongly differ on Perry’s arrest, this divide is especially noticeable online. After Perry’s tweets, members of the BJL helped popularize the hashtag #StandwithPerry, which has been used by many Facebook and Twitter users to show support for the professor. But a prominent backlash against Perry also arose.
On the mobile app Yik Yak, a forum that allows people within a certain geographic radius to write and vote on public messages anonymously, a top post following Perry’s tweets read, “Perry resign. Inciting anger/lying by playing the race card is abusive.” And Perry suspended her Twitter account after she claimed it had been hacked and that she had received threats.
Nicky Steidel, a Princeton sophomore, said the backlash was not a shock. But he also thinks Perry’s overall message has been overlooked. “She’s not saying she wasn’t speeding, and she’s not saying she didn’t have an unpaid parking ticket,” he said. “What she is talking about is the racial selectivity of policing.”
Though some have criticized Perry for suggesting that she was treated unfairly by the police due to her race, the professor says her claims have been largely misinterpreted. In “The End,” Perry wrote: “I have never said that in my case that there was necessarily racial bias at work. I could not possibly know whether that was at issue. But I do know that I belong to the racial group to which this happens more frequently than any other.”
Princeton sophomore Ben Senders, said any mention of racial selectivity in regards to Perry’s arrest is unwarranted. “I think Imani Perry is in the wrong. She broke the law,” he said, citing the fact that Perry was charged with driving an unregistered car with a suspended license, and that before she was arrested, police said she was driving 67 mph in a 45-mph zone. “If the police acted within the guidelines, I don’t think you can say they were being racist.”
Others point to dashcam footage of her arrest, which does not show any acts of violence or verbal abuse from the police. “She wasn’t thrown up against the side of the police car like you might see in a movie,” Butler said. “It seemed like a rather gentle pat down.”
Joshua Leifer, a Princeton junior and editor of The Princeton Progressive, the magazine that published the BJL’s statement, contests the view that the arrest video discredits Perry’s claims.
“I don’t think there’s such thing as a polite arrest,” he said. “You have people who have weapons, who can kill you, and who—as the non-indictments of the past have shown—would never be held accountable if they did kill you. Just because there isn’t an instance of physical violence, doesn’t mean there wasn’t the perception of the threat of violence.”
While several aspects of the Perry case debatable, for sophomore Alana Reynolds, the question of whether or not the Princeton police followed the proper guidelines in their treatment of Perry is the most important. “This conversation should have been more about whether or not those experiences Imani Perry mentioned were standard protocol,” she said. “Instead it’s revolved around whether her statements about discrimination were valid. But that’s a very subjective, almost unprovable, argument.”
For Butler, there is no question: police followed protocol. “All of that was standard procedure,” she said. “However, I think the police chief would concede if [they] had to do it again, [they] would have the female officer pat her down.”
News website Planet Princeton reported Princeton police chief Nick Sutter recognizing Perry’s concerns. “No matter what the facts are, we need to listen to perspectives and get better,” Sutter said. “We’ve learned that there is a mistrust of law enforcement in our country. It is real.”
The Mercer County Prosecutors Office reviewed police video and reports and court documents for its investigation. First assistant prosecutor Doris Galuchie, discussing its findings, said, “Based upon [our] review, the officer’s conduct is to be commended, not criticized. Unless Perry comes forward with additional evidence, the case will be closed by a finding exonerating the officer.”
Several members of the BJL declined to comment on the video of Perry’s arrest, and on the assistant prosecutor’s comments, for this story.
Galuchie’s statements have led many to question the severity of punishment regarding ticket infractions.
“Why are we treating people who haven’t paid two parking tickets like this?” said Steidel. “Why do you have to pat them down for weapons? Why do you have to restrain them? I think that whole procedure cannot be justified just because it happens all the time.”
Perry also questioned this policy in her final statement. “If it were five parking tickets, I should not have been handcuffed to a table. A parking ticket is not an indication that a person poses a physical threat … I did not pose a physical threat and I was not stopped on suspicion of posing a violent threat to anyone.”
Butler acknowledges Perry’s view, but said she believes arrest is the best way to make sure people pay fines. “Being arrested seems harsh,” she said. “On the other hand, some states turn people over to collection agencies, and that can ruin your life.”
Even amid controversy, Leifer believes there is a silver lining to the incident. “I think anything that brings issues of race and policing back into campus conversation is a good thing,” he said.
For Butler, the conversation has run its course. “I think the sooner we can put this issue behind us the better,” Butler said. “Then the community can start to heal.”
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