When we think of medical school, we often think of how difficult it is for students to get in. After all, even in our current healthcare system, there’s a lot of money to be made as a doctor, so the best and brightest often work hard to get into med school.

However, a group of medical students from the University of California- San Francisco recently staged a protest that should give heart to dumb kids everywhere. They proved that you don’t have to be that smart to get into medical school.

A crowd of some 60 UCSF medical residents, students, and faculty laid their bodies down in front of San Francisco General Hospital on Monday evening during a “die-in” demonstration that challenged the role of law enforcement in hospital settings.

They wore their white coats, held electric candles, and carried signs that read “Imagine Nonviolent De-escalation,” “Hospitalization ≠ Criminalization,” and “Sheriff Out Of the General.”

Their asks?

“We’re wondering if we can provide safety in hospitals in other ways without uniforms and guns and flashing lights,” said Sheyda Aboii, a first-year UCSF student who helped organize the event with the activist group White Coats for Black Lives.

Aboii said she and the others are asking for several changes. They want guns and Tasers banned from hospital campuses; hospitals to move away from using law enforcement as security;  hospital staff to not comply with SFPD or federal immigration agencies; and that UCSF make an official statement “decrying” Tasers, which the Police Commission recently approved.

“We certainly recognize there’s this desire to create safe space where professionals can provide care and those seeking care can receive it,” Aboii said. “But unfortunately some of our patients have had bad encounters with [local law enforcement].”

Wow.

Did this brainiac bother to wonder why some of those patients had bad encounters with law enforcement? I’m willing to bet money that they either committed a crime or failed to cooperate with police who were investigating a crime.

Further, only a complete idiot looks at a lack of police and tasers as somehow a good thing.

It’s one thing to not want private citizens to carry guns in a hospital. It’s dumb too, but I understand the underlying ignorance involved. However, thinking that police have no place in a hospital is something I can’t fathom.

Hospitals have a lot going on, and there’s a lot of reasons to have security in place. Among others are the large stores of controlled substances that every hospital has on hand. That makes them an attractive target for criminals. Take out armed security and it’s just that much more attractive.

And as for using police for security, let’s get something clear about police versus private security. Police have arrest powers. They can cuff someone who is breaking the law, thus negating their ability to continue to break the law. Your average rent-a-cop doesn’t. Even particularly competent armed security is still more restricted in how they can deal with problematic individuals than a law enforcement officer.

That’s just how it goes.

But please, oh children studying to be doctors, do go on and tell us more about the evils of law enforcement. Believe that…up until the moment you recognize that police put their lives on the line daily for your ungrateful rears. Be idealists all you want, but understand that when you run smack into reality, you’re probably going to want a police officer.