"CSC: UTEP's Blackwater?"

Adapted from Mr. Michael Reese, The UTEP Prospector, October 9, 2007.

"A funny thing happened to me on the way to the football game last Saturday night.

"As I approached the parking lot on the east side of the Union (where I have parked my motorcycle prior to each of the home games for which I have taken pictures in the employ of the UTEP Prospector), I was approached by a Contemporary Services Corporation (CSC) staff member who informed me that there were no available spaces in that parking lot.

"I informed him that I could see the very spot where I intended to park my motorcycle and it was very much unoccupied.

"For good measure, I told him my vehicle has a disabled veteran's license plate, which entitles me to park at any metered parking spot in the state of Texas, duty free.

"The CSC staff member was not dissuaded.

"I readily admit I do not know for certain but here is what I think is going on."

UTEP contracting for out - of -town muscle ??

"I postulate that the university has contracted out various police duties revolving around crowd control to a private corporation [like Mr. Paul Bremer's Blackwater in Iraq??], as this likely costs far less than paying the city an docuntyof El Paso or the state of Texas the necessary money to provide for the number of police officers, county sheriff's deputies, or state troopers necessary to guide and control a crowd of more than 50,000 people through an evening of college football.

"I want to be clear that I do not blame or begrudge the individual memebers of the CSC staff."

And as for package and personal searches ...

"Obviously it is essential to good order and public safety that people entering the UTEP Sun Bowl must submit to reasonable searches.

"Further, because we live in a nation where the Constitution and the rule of law are supreme, the people conducting these searches must be duly appointed and overseen by the judiciary.

"The university can and should make the necessary allotments to provide a bona fide peace officer to supervise the reasonable searches of people and possessions entering the Sun Bowl."