Crossing the Line into Bigotry?
Racist Behavior Within the BUPD
By Stephen Lan

Randomly photographed members of the BUPD. Photo by Peter Shin.

Christopher Dignan’s life ended at 19 when a bullet tore through his brain. The fatal shot was fired by a Boston University campus police officer, and it shattered Christopher’s skull behind the ear¹. The BU cop claimed he fired in self-defense. Chris was not armed. The shooting happened miles from the college campus², and to the gratification of the BU administration no charges were ever filed³.

Officer Kevin Bourque’s drivers license was suspended⁴. He never should have been driving the day he killed Christopher Dignan, but Boston University allowed him to operate a BUPD vehicle and kill with a firearm purchased by BU.

Christopher was slaughtered in a fashion ominously similar to another controversial police shooting just four years earlier. 14-year-old Levi Hart, a Roxbury teenager, was murdered by Bourque’s older brother Richard⁵.

Last November the BU cops voluntarily participated in an automobile chase on Commonwealth Avenue. With nothing else to do they were listening to a local Police broadcast and chose to get involved. Boston and State police arrived to tell the BUPD they stopped the wrong car, and the vehicle occupants were allowed to go⁶.

Engaging in a motor vehicle pursuit on streets filled with students is reckless behavior. It is in direct conflict with BUPD’s public safety mission. With allegations of theft, nepotism, bigotry, and racial profiling about to emerge, the BUPD distracted and diverted professional law enforcement in an irresponsible attempt to spruce up their image for the new University President.

BU’s police force is an organization that doesn’t face any of the dangers State and Municipal police do. They attend training seminars, but in reality they never face situations that develop skills professional police rely upon. In fact, professional law enforcement regards the BU police as a joke. BU’s cops are essentially security guards who have little to do but investigate petty theft and student pranks.

The BUPD is a support department, and let me emphasize the word support, because in the business of education, revenue comes from tuition and fees. The BUPD represents an expense on the University’s income statement, and that expense can easily take a bite out of the school’s operating budget. All that’s required is a little BUPD misconduct and the University must deal with litigation. The cost is passed in the form of higher tuition and fees.

It’s not difficult for a tragedy to occur. Arming fifty plus BU cops to provide security for a college campus is ridiculous and redundant. BU’s urban campus is a short distance from several neighborhood police stations, and a state police barracks.

Control of criminal statistics explains the existence of the BU police. The administration tolerates this potential liability because by having a police department on the payroll BU has the capability and incentive to alter criminal statistics that normal police don’t.⁷

Black enrollment at BU has been the lowest of any university in greater Boston⁸. The BUPD also doesn’t appear to employ any black police officers. Examining the BUPD website there are publicity pictures of almost every BUPD employee and none appear to be black. This raises questions. Does a racial imbalance exist at the BUPD? Is there a link between BUPD’s racial imbalance and low minority enrollment?

The Boston Globe reported that BU’s former police Chief Robert Shea kept a BUPD booking photograph inside his car. The picture depicted white hands restraining a black man in a chokehold. The article went on to report Chief Shea said his wife, Anne Shea, Vice-President of Enrollment and Student Affairs, “got a kick out of it.”⁹

Is it possible that Robert and Anne Shea are two powerful bigots who bring racist attitudes to their jobs at BU? Colleges and Universities all over Massachusetts don’t have the problem BU has enrolling minority students, but Anne Shea doesn’t oversee their admissions. Equally, cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth have no problem recruiting minority police officers, but Robert Shea was also not their police chief.

The irony is that Boston University proclaims it is an “unbiased” establishment at the vanguard in the struggle for Civil Rights. They narrate a canned historical account listing early abolitionist investments. They romanticize the success of Dr Solomon Carter Fuller, the appointment of Howard Thurman, and the achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

As they publicize this hypocrisy, racial profiling continues every day at Boston University. The fact that BU limits African American enrollment and employment creates this environment. Singling out minorities for questioning is certainly valid in the eyes of the BUPD. The belief that blacks probably have no business being on or near BU property is a compelling reason for targeting minorities.

Double standards always exist in the dispensation of justice. Police officers, prosecutors, judges, and anyone who is part of the system are held to a much lower standard of behavior than the rest of us. The Suffolk County District Attorney has a tradition of not pursuing charges against police officers. Last year’s Fenway Park pepperball incident indicates how true this is.¹⁰

This special grace extends to the BU cops too. At the time of Chris Dignan’s death the police chief on the BU payroll was a retired Boston Police Superintendent¹¹. A long-standing amicable relationship existed between him and the Suffolk County DA’s office. Like so many times before, and so many times after, innocent people are prosecuted, and murderers are allowed to walk free. With a wink and a nod officer Bourque faced no criminal responsibility.¹²

Being a member of the white race appears to be a prerequisite for BUPD employment. It also seems to help if you happen to be a male and a relative of the police chief or someone high in the administrative hierarchy.

There tend to be three categories of BU police officers. The first is the young individual who stays for a short time then moves on to a real law enforcement job. The second is the retiree who is looking for an easy job to stay busy, and supplement a retirement income.

The third group makes BU their law enforcement career. Despite friends and relatives working for the state, cities, or towns, many of these individuals never held a real law enforcement job. They have a lot of time invested with BU, and tend to be frustrated with their vocational goals. They are at the apex of their careers, and the chance they will overreact to the rare situation or create one like Kevin Bourque did exists. Add to the mix a lack of skill and the fact that BU police officers will never ever be prosecuted in Suffolk County and you have a recipe for another tragedy.

The BUPD was established in 1947 at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. That was almost sixty years ago, but today’s BUPD has a racial component similar to the 1963 Birmingham Police.

Boston University made one notable contribution in its entire existence, and that achievement had more to do more with random good fortune than a guided accomplishment. An unknown Martin Luther King Jr. applied and was accepted into a doctorate program.

1. Boston Globe, “Bullet hit BU victim behind ear, doctor says” 12/22/1984
2. Boston Globe, “BU officer kills auto-theft suspect in a brighton lot” 12/03/1984
3. Boston Globe, “BU officer was justified in shooting, DA says” 04/02/1985
4. Boston Globe, “Officer in fatal chase had void driver’s license” 12/06/1984
5. Boston Globe, “BU officer’s brother involved in ‘80 shooting” 12/05/1984
6. The Daily Free Press, “BUPD conduct car chase after reports of a gun threat; suspects released” 11/18/2005
7. Boston Phoenix, “Above the Law: The battle to make campus-police reports public” 07/15/2005
8. The Daily Free Press, “BU’s lack of black students feeds a vicious cycle” 10/10/2002
9. Boston Globe, “Ex-BU officer suing school” 07/11/2005
10. Boston Globe, “Penalties are light for police charged with misconduct” 10/12/2005
11. Boston Globe, “Police Supt. Doyle quits, will take BU job” 11/26/1981
12. Boston Globe, “BU officer was justified in shooting, DA says” 04/02/1985

Other articles by Stephen Lan.

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