On Tuesday, July 4, at approximately 4:45 p.m., a Penn police officer shot and wounded one of two suspects during an attempt to steal a bicycle from a bicycle rack in the vicinity of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
There should be no argument with the Penn Police devoting their best efforts to preventing or, in the very least, curtailing crime on campus and its periphery, especially when the majority of the criticism of Penn's Division of Public Safety focuses on the increase in crime on and around campus and DPS's ability to control that increase.
However, given that these two suspects were attempting to steal a bicycle rather than rob someone at gunpoint, this question must be asked: Did the crime warrant the severity of the effort to prevent it?
It must be stated that the investigation into this incident is still ongoing, and without additional information, no determination can be made as to whether the Penn officer who fired his weapon was in the right. Students have the right to feel secure while on Penn's campus, and the Penn Police are charged to do their utmost to ensure that that feeling of safety still exists.
Yet there must be limits. The punishment must match the crime, and when law enforcement devolves into nothing more than vigilante justice, it does not solve the problems of urban crime or remove the need to take precautions. Instead, it just worsens the problem.
After all, fear can incite violence just as well as the lure of a new bicycle.
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