My neighbors are crazy — I mean absolutely nuts — so I was not surprised when they summoned the police to my house on Friday night. I was surprised, however, when the officers waltzed right in through my front door, without so much as a knock.

My small gathering turned into a nightmare when two Binghamton Police officers walked into my living room without any welcome or permission. Toothpick in mouth, the officer immediately began to berate us. After taking our names down, the officer began to tell us about how he lived in the neighborhood. Friendly guy, huh? No way.

Mr. Officer informed me that my neighbors pay his salary through taxes, so what they say goes. Basically, my rights as a U.S. citizen do not matter because I fail to put food on this guy’s plate.

First off, I pay my landlord an exorbitant sum each month, which pays for what? OK, maybe it’s not exorbitant — but it still eventually goes toward taxes and the Binghamton Police department’s salaries.

Second, how about my Fourth Amendment rights? I am only obligated to let the police into my home if they have a warrant or believe there is a serious health risk or that crime evidence may be destroyed if they do not enter. In the Dec. 1 Pipe Dream article, “Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?” the deputy chief of Binghamton’s New York State University Police, Timothy Faughnan, says that “students’ rights are the same as any other citizen enjoys: the right to be free from search and seizure.” Maybe the cop on Friday should have thought about that before he took the liberty of letting himself into my house without any warning, and claiming he could do so because I lived in a “two-apartment house.”

Certain residents of this town hold a personal grudge against the students, but who are they kidding? It is pretty pitiful to think what this city would be like without the University and student body. BU employs one out of 10 local residents and we pump $700 million dollars a year into the greater Binghamton area. Instead of waking me up at 6 a.m. with your wood-chopping, sawing, lawn mowing and backyard Olympics, and then bitching when I have seven friends over to play a game of Kings, why don’t you thank me?

I also recall a lovely e-mail from Binghamton’s Police Chief, Steven Tronovitch, at the beginning of the year, telling BU students that he wants to work together with us. I thought that was very admirable; it’s just too bad the cop I dealt with failed to get the memo.

I am not saying that students are saints or that police department is the devil, but as students, we are entitled to the same rights and treatment as the next person. So officers, the next time my crazy neighbors decide to call in a complaint, please for one moment deflate your ego — and give me the courtesy of a knock.

— Erica Fritz is a senior psychology and pre-med major. Her editor would like to point out, to any member of the Binghamton Police Bureau that may get their hands on this, that one does not need to have passed the Bar exam to know one’s constitutional rights.