The lawyer’s comments were printed in a student newspaper.

DURHAM, N.H. (AP) – The lawyer defending University of New Hampshire students arrested during a fall disturbance says police provoke them with “aggressive, in-your-face policing.”

Joanne Stella, a lawyer for UNH student legal services, also accused police of acting unprofessionally and ridiculing students. Her comments were published as an opinion column in the student newspaper.

Police Chief Dave Kurz called the comments inflammatory and said it was irresponsible to publish them in a student newspaper.

“I’m particularly saddened that as an adult advocate of students, she couldn’t come and talk to the police about her opinions,” Kurz said. “In this environment, where we’re all seeking solutions, for her to advocate that the police are at fault simply because we have police presence on the street and ride bikes and interact with students is irresponsible.

“I’ve always valued her opinion,” Kurz said. “To put it in this forum only serves to inflame an already tense situation that we’re all trying to resolve.”

Police and students have confronted each other in the streets of Durham two times since last spring – once after the hockey team lost in the final of the NCAA tournament in April and twice this fall after the Boston Red Sox lost the American League championship series to the New York Yankees.

In the most recent incident Oct. 16, police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd. Several people hurled bottles and rocks at police and set off fireworks. Police also said some people shot paintball guns at them during the melee.

In the spring incident, 87 people were arrested; in October, seven people, six of them students, were arrested.

Stella contended a greater police presence in Durham is to blame for more arrests of what she called “victimless crimes,” such as alcohol charges.

In her piece, Stella said students “don’t have a lot of voice” at UNH, and compares her college experience to the state of affairs at UNH, where police have quelled a half-dozen riots or disturbances of several hundred people in the past year.

“When I was in college we didn’t have police patrolling the dormitories. If you lived off campus you never saw police unless a single car pulled up to tell you to quiet the party down,” she said.

“Today, students have police striding into their back yards on bikes like they own the place,” Stella wrote. “Do you think they feel intruded upon?”

Today, students can’t hang out on the back steps of their building without a cop asking them to show some identification. Today, if you try to make it home after drinking too much the police put you into protective custody and you spend the night in jail. I don’t remember that happening when I was in college.”

Stella wrote that police “make a spectacle of themselves every night,” and that students tell her police yell at them and use aggressive tactics. She suggested police make students feel “denigrated, ridiculed and frustrated.”

Kurz refuted Stella’s claims.

“The back yards are apartment buildings and were working with the landlords at their request, really as taxpayers who have asked us to get involved,” he said.

“If a police officer does something wrong, there’s a court to (address that,)” Kurz said. “The place to do that is not on the street. Unfortunately, that’s what young, impressionable minds may see in her letter.”

Kurz also suggested Stella’s comments could have long-term effects on students who take them too literally.

“Attorney Stella will probably not be around when the students have to fill out job applications that say check this box if you’ve been arrested,” Kurz said.

UNH administrators released a one-paragraph response to Stella’s piece.

“Many in the university administration consider themselves to be student advocates, and show that advocacy on a daily basis by their actions as well as their words,” the statement said. “Furthermore, we continue to believe that working in close partnership with Durham and UNH police is one of many good strategies we will continue to stop student disturbances.”

AP-ES-11-04-03 1626EST

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