“Who do you think you are, motherfucker?” Stumped?

That’s supposedly the question Georgetown University student Christine Pfeil heard a GU campus cop ask a cornered suspect. An effort to contact Pfeil failed, so we have no idea how the guy answered. But Pfeil told the Georgetown Voice blog Vox Populi that early on the morning of March 19, she saw officers from the Department of Public Safety (DPS) charge at a group of college-aged men. The men scattered, she says, but DPS managed to catch one near the Reiss Science Building. According to the account, that’s when the DPS officers started talking tough.

Vox: “At this point, Pfeil said, the officers began yelling at the man, using phrases like, ‘Get on the ground, you piece of shit,’ and threatening to use their batons against him.”

“Pfeil, who became too nervous to watch from the sidewalk, went back to her Henle Village apartment and watched the rest of the incident from a window. She said that the DPS officers and the man, whom she described as young, white, and wearing khaki shorts and carrying a backpack, stood outside for another 20 minutes or so before the officers led him away in handcuffs.”

Investigator Sergeant D.E. Ruiz of DPS confirms that an arrest took place at the time Pfeil mentioned. He says that on the morning of the 19th campus police  “observed five individuals smoking marijuana.”

The officers identified themselves, he says, and the group decided to run for it.  Ruiz says DPS managed to snag one of the runners and the suspect was a GU student. He was arrested and charged for failure to comply.

Asked about the threatening language Pfeil says she heard from officers, Ruiz says it’s the first time he’s heard about it: “I cannot comment to that, I don’t know anything about that.” He says DPS will investigate any complaints, but so far, none have been filed.