A Job Well Done

When the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) sit-in began, some feared that the protest might end like the University Hall takeover in 1969—with Cambridge city police and Massachusetts state troopers storming the building in riot gear, firing tear gas and clubbing protesters in an attempt to remove them from the building.

Fortunately, however, the sit-in was conducted peacefully. This is due, in great part, to the professional and responsible attitude with which the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) approached the students. For weeks, HUPD officers managed to provide adequate security inside and outside Massachusetts Hall in addition to covering their regular patrols and keeping the campus safe.

Harvard’s police officers worked 16-hour shifts, staying on the job through meals and giving up days off. Eventually, University security employees and Cambridge police officers supplemented the effort, but the credit should lie with HUPD: As a result of its efforts, the protest did not substantially detract from students’ safety.

Throughout the sit-in, by most accounts, HUPD acted with commendable restraint and sympathy for the students involved. Though there were some tense moments at the beginning of the occupation, protesters and police eventually settled into a stable coexistence.

The idea of community policing, long championed by HUPD Chief Francis D. “Bud” Riley, seems to have paid off handsomely. On the first day of the protest, Riley made a comment that exemplified HUPD’s approach throughout the difficult situation: “We know [the protesters] by their first names.” These personal connections emphasize the degree to which HUPD has gone to create a non-confrontational atmosphere when dealing with PSLM.

It was the University’s decision to follow a conciliatory policy rather than initiate a crackdown similar to 1969. But during the uncertain days at the beginning of the sit-in, all it might have taken to turn the protest quite ugly was a single shove by a tired, overworked police officer. In such a tense situation, with both parties weary and tempers surely on a short fuse, HUPD managed the sit-in in a way that showed its respect and care for Harvard’s students. HUPD’s conduct over the course of the protest was a true tribute to the department’s professionalism.