I didn't get a chance to head down to Soulard last week for any of the Mardi Gras festivities. From what I hear, however, I should be somewhat glad I didn't go.

One friend told me about an acquaintance who was drinking from a bottle of Coke that contained alcohol. Someone dressed as a civilian tapped him on the shoulder and said, "What's in the bottle?" In an instant, he was surrounded by four or five other cops who grabbed the bottle, smelled it, checked his ID and then put him in a holding cell for seven hours.

What I found disturbing was why they would arrest someone who could best be described as "quiet" amid a crowd of loud, intoxicated youths heavily clad in beads.

Two Fridays ago, I was attacked by three SLU students I didn't know. They mumbled something behind my back. I said "What?" and they began to hit me. Luckily, there was one DPS officer standing by to stop things before they got any worse.

In one situation, you have someone who is breaking the law but minding his own business. While he may have deserved a ticket, he did not deserve to be jailed. In the other, you have three people that are clearly dangerous, but continue to do these kinds of things without being punished on a regular basis.

I'm not saying that there should not have been cops down at Soulard on Mardi Gras; that would be like arguing that America should have stayed out of World War II even after Pearl Harbor. Both cases clearly required some sort of police action. It seems to me, though, that arresting someone for drinking underage in public who is posing no immediate threat to anyone is a lot like our president going after Iraq when Bin Laden is still at large. Oh wait, he did do that.

I understand the excessive security at Mardi Gras this year was a preventative measure in case of a large-scale riot, but I believe it was taken too far. If some of the cops who were down there had driven by our campus instead, maybe my cut lip could have been prevented.

I'm all for personal privacy, so I am glad that the cops don't take over our campus entirely. It is true that I'm worried our privacy has been stolen away from us. Protection against illegal and excessive searches and seizures are guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. No one should have to worry about spending seven hours in jail for a petty crime, while obnoxious drunks roam around elsewhere, starting fights just because they feel like it.

Then the question becomes, who is at fault for this problem? I could blame President Bush, but that's too easy. But what do we do to fix it? Resort to some twisted form of anarchistic rebellion where we all roam the streets, looting and pillaging everything we see? Alternatively, should we merely lie back and allow this to happen?

The honest answer is that I don't know. My head is still reeling from the blows.

Marshall Johnson is a sophomore studying English.