Ahh yes, the 420 controversy continues. Well I for one had a fine time on 420. I hung out on redstone green with a few hundred of my fellow students and listened to some impressive improv. musicians jamming in the warm sun. This was probably the first time I have ever felt any community unity at UVM. I cirtainly never felt that in the dorms, as everyone’s doors were always locked for fear of roaming police officers. The only other times I have been with that many UVM’ers just having fun the cops came and all my friends had to jump out of windows to keep from getting suspended. As far as the police presence on redstone green I think it was a little overdone, but that is to be expected when that many people gather in support of something that is illegal. I understand why some people were arrested for smoking pot, I assume that if they didn’t want to get arrested they would have stopped smoking when the cops came around. That is why I didn’t break any laws while I was there. My only complaint is that at least one student that I know of was arrested for “attempting to incite a riot”. That is a little extreme for a bunch of stoners chanting on the green, and how do you identify who was inciting and who was just going along? It was interesting to contrast that arrest with the officers throwing footballs and frisbees with students. Maybe that was just a nice show for the TV cameras. So what did a few hundred kids gathering and listening to music, ten or twenty kids (at any given time) smoking pot, thirty or forty cops (that is my best estimation) marching around, videotaping, and arresting five or six students accomplish? I think it all showed that those kids were not hurting anyone. Who were the police serving and protecting by arresting those students? The cops were doing their jobs, and they probably could have tried to arrest more people, but those few arrests just seemed so absurd that one had to laugh… come to think of it by about 4:30 we were all laughing. Don’t get me wrong, besides the unnecessary “inciting a riot” arrest I thought the police were fairly well behaved. I know they didn’t make the laws, they just enforce them. My point to those who make the laws is: nothing bad came of some kids hanging out and smoking pot, and I bet those cops would agree with me that their time could have been better spent on more important crimes, but until the laws are changed, that is not for them to decide.