Why I Won’t Write For The Tiger

I refuse to write for The Tiger because it is in the business of humiliating people for making mistakes.

The Tiger regularly prints campus arrests in a section called “In the Books.” They print the name of the arresting officer, the name of the student, the location, the time, and the date of the arrest. Browsing through a January edition of this newspaper, one can find people who were arrested for fake IDs, driving under suspension, and public disorderly drunken conduct. No one is encouraging students to break the law, but is printing such information the proper way to handle such unfortunate situations? Should we humiliate fellow students this way? The day has long past when we threw rotten tomatoes at criminals in the public square.

Some of you might enjoy reading “In the Books.” Maybe it reminds you of a soap opera. Maybe you enjoy the drama because you want a little excitement. Sure, most of us stop to look at a car crash when we pass by, and some of us like to watch the TV show “Cops.” We talk about our neighbors, our friends, and our family. We all do this because we’re human. Whether we admit it or not, we like drama.

However, when it comes to the police reports, we should all remember that this is real life. This is a real person, a person more like us than we think. Let’s just be honest: the majority of us have broken the law at one point or another. Some of us (including myself) have never been caught doing anything wrong. That doesn’t mean we never will be caught, nor does it mean that we’re necessarily smarter or smoother. People make mistakes. People get unlucky. The people in the police reports are not characters on a TV show to sneer at and belittle. They are people quite like us. We could one day find ourselves in a similar situation, so let’s show a little compassion. Let’s show The Tiger how we feel. Humiliation is not the best policy.

If it weren’t for this column, I would read The Tiger more often. I actually enjoy reading it, and I think the paper has many talented writers on its staff. I only wish that it had a little more integrity.

A few days ago, I received an email recruiting people to write for The Tiger. My strongly worded response commented that I could not write for the paper as long as it printed Clemson arrests. Please consider writing a letter stating your opposition to the public humiliation of students. Let’s make the campus a more friendly and welcoming place. Even students who make mistakes deserve some privacy and dignity, but if The Tiger refuses to remove its column, I suggest you opt solely for the Forum instead.