Support for Dr. Jennifer Vest

The undersigned philosophers, and other academics, wish to register our concern over the treatment of our colleague, Dr. Jennifer Lisa Vest, by UCF campus police on the evening of August 9, 2010. Although we await further clarification of the event itself through a thorough investigation into the matter by appropriate authorities, we strongly condemn what appears to have been racial profiling and the violation of Dr. Vests basic civil rights.

As scholars trained in ethics and critical thinking, we take seriously our ethical responsibility to resist excuses for and rationalizations of racism or other forms of discrimination on the part of university officials. We sincerely hope that you will also refuse to tolerate or excuse what appears to have been egregious behavior on the part of the UCF police toward our colleague.

According to her own account, Dr. Vest was stopped by University of Central Florida police officers on a questionable charge (defective tail light), after which both her person and her automobile were unjustifiably searched for contraband. This appears to have occurred even after Dr. Vest informed the officers that she was a professor at the university, to which one police officer purportedly replied, "I don't care who the h___ you are!" During the incident, which lasted over an hour, Dr. Vest was subjected to verbal abuse, physical intimidation, and public humiliation.

Based on the information available to us at this time, we believe the actions by these four police officers to have been clearly unprofessional, of questionable legality, and exemplary of the kind of racial profiling suffered by other faculty of color at other universities.

We write to register our support for our colleague, and to urge you to conduct a full and complete investigation of the events of August 9th in a manner commensurate with the seriousness of Dr. Vests allegations.

We thank you in advance for your careful consideration of this important matter.