Harvard later acknowledged Ntshanga's student status, and in a brief trial he was acquitted. Last spring, his attorney, former Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union president Harvey A. Silverglate, asked Vice President and General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall to conduct an investigation.
The probe found no wrongdoing on the part of police.
But Silverglate says the "in house" nature of the investigation, which was conducted by Harvard attorney Ryan, biased the result in favor of the University.
Administrators are divided over the controversy. Epps expresses support for Ntshanga's claims of racial harassment while Johnson and Ryan main tain that officers acted in a professional manner.
But Black students have been virtually unanimous in their condemnation of the incident. Several Black undergraduates say campus cops routinely stop them without provocation.
Alvin L. Bragg '95, who recently stepped down as president of the Black Student Association (BSA), criticizes what he calls the "illegal" arrest of Ntshanga.
"The BSA has tended to publicize in the past the overt discrimination that is practiced by the Harvard University police force and almost every police force in this nation," Bragg says.
Ntshanga's arrest--Which will remain on his record despite his acquittal--has encouraged several Black students to publicize their negative experiences with Harvard police.
"There is a serious problem with regards to how some members of the police department treat Black Students on campus," says Zaheer R. Ali '94, a former BSA President.
The worst part about the alleged police harassment, Ali and other students say, is that many Black students have come to accept such treatment as a fact of life on campus.
According to Bragg, the Ntshanga case was the most significant racial incident on campus since the BSA distributed the "On the Harvard Plantation" flyer in the spring of 1992. That document charged campus police with discrimination in four other specific cases. Then as with Ntshanga, Johnson denied the allegations.
Internal Conflict
As its relations with minority communities have worsened, internal divisions within the department have also grown, sources say.
Some officers report that the department has become split into camps, with one group backing Police Lt. Lawrence J. Murphy and another loyal to Rooney, head of the criminal investigations division. The two camps have accused one another of orchestrating damaging leaks to The Crimson to discredit Rooney or Murphy.
In what police sources termed a move to bring a fresh perspective to the department, Herbert J. Vallier, a former associate director of personnel services for the Faculty, took over the post of Brian D. Sinclair--who had been the department's assistant director for finance and administration--last month. Vallier is known as a sensitive, but tough administrator.
In addition, Johnson may be on his way out. The chief had told friends for years that he wanted to retire after completing his tenth year of Harvard service in December 1993.
He eventually decided against retirement at that time, but health problems have kept him out for much of this academic year.
It is widely rumored that Johnson will step down after Commencement.