Despite the fact that locals would disagree, the community is a STUDENT community. The Harrisonburg Police lost the respect of the student community through a consistent pattern of rights violations and petty law enforcement over the years. Student non-cooperation and disrespect for law enforcement in Harrisonburg is to be expected.

A well publicized example of petty law enforcement was charging 2 JMU students with felonious “launching of a missile” for throwing a snowball at a police cruiser. The charge was absurd.

An example of the repetitive rights violations is the failure to provide a Miranda warning before coercing a confession of guilt from minors charged with “underage possession” of an alcoholic beverage. Harrisonburg Police Officers typically threaten to take the young person to jail unless they confess to the crime. Clearly, this supplies the measure of compulsion above and beyond that inherent in custody itself conceptualized in the Miranda opinion

Approximately one thousand JMU students are charged with violation of Virginia Code 4.1-305 each year. In every case the student’s Constitutional privilege against self-incrimination is violated. This is just one category of errant law enforcement. Harrisonburg derives millions of dollars in fines from the JMU student community every year. It has distinguished itself among all municipalities in the country for the percentage of minors so accused. Can there be any wonder that Harrisonburg Law Enforcement disrespected? In fact, it is the zeal for such enforcement that must be wondered At.