Dear Editor, My entire life I have always had the utmost respect for the law, and I will continue to; all except one Officer Bob Randazzo, an officer on the WCU campus. Known to students with tickets as officer number 170. I now understand why police officers are referred to as pigs, although it would be insulting to the pig in this case. The problem all started when I was a passenger of a vehicle whose driver was given a ticket. While stopped at Dodson crosswalk, students were crossing the road while the vehicle that I was in stopped allowing them to cross. After all the pedestrians had crossed the road, and no one was waiting to cross, the car was put back in gear, idling forward. There was no indication given by this officer that he wanted the car still stopped, we continued on our way, only to surprisingly hear a yell for us to pull our car over and that he wanted to write us a ticket. We obeyed, kindly asking why we were going to receive a ticket wondering what we had done wrong. This man told us we failed to stop at a crosswalk, but we had, and we pointed that out to him. Then he said, (and checked on the ticket), that we had failed to obey an officer. All it would have taken to prevent this incident was the effort of raising his arm. When we asked how we had failed to obey, due to there not being given any instruction, he simply dismissed us. With ticket in hand, we went directly to the traffic office and asked to speak to Chief McAbee about our problem. We were asked to sit in the waiting area and told that he would be right with us. Guess who walked through the door while we were waiting; none other than Officer Bob Randazzo (#170). I personally found this rude of both this officer and the chief. McAbee kept us waiting while he first spoke to Randazzo. This was taken as a disrespectful act from someone with such a dignifying position. Once finally accepted into McAbee’s office, we were treated as if we were stupid, to say the least. When I asked if I could file a formal complaint against this officer, my right to do so was rejected. Therefore, this letter has been written. My complaint is now in writing for all to read. This claim has been put on appeal to the SGA office, in hopes of justice. This officer, #170, is a rude man who could have simply raised his arm to show that he wanted a car to stay stopped. Funny, the campus police don’t seem to be doing a good job at preventing crimes here at WCU. You cannot pick up a newspaper, turn on the TV, or even sit on the toilet without reading about how the campus police cannot provide sufficient security for the students. Amazingly, #170 would rather waste his time giving unjustifiable tickets than to help make the campus a little safer. In writing this letter, I hope to influence an attitude change among Chief McAbee and his officers.
“K”
