Students write names on plaza in demonstration against police brutality
October 24, 2016
Over 865 names were written in chalk on the LSC plaza in a demonstration against police brutality on Saturday.
The open demonstration was held by the Ethnic Studies Student Organizations in recognition of National Day Against Police Brutality.
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The names written were the names of people killed through police brutality in 2016, regardless of race. The demonstration aimed to build awareness to those affected by police brutality.
“It was not a confrontational protest, but more victim-centered,” said demonstration organizer Erica Lafehr. “The idea was to build an impact piece so people can understand the extent of death.”
Lafehr and the student organization wrote out names of victims and drew several body lines along the plaza for each name.
“We really wanted the student body to see these names and just think about the loss of live inherent to the conversation about police brutality,” Lafehr said.
The ETST student organization hopes to spark conversation among the student police of CSU in order to bring awareness to police brutality issues.
“I think when 30,000 students walk in the plaza, they will be able to see it and spark conversation,” said Angela Groves, senior Ethnic Studies and Psychology major. “If we get more people involved in the conversation we can get more people involved in the change.”
Lafehr said that she believes there will be some push back from students at CSU in response to the demonstration and that the current political state is ripe for that response, but hopes the demonstration will bring awareness to police brutality.
“In essence, I don’t care how they respond,” said Lafehr. “But at the same time, I hope it will elicit some kind of empathy. More so, my ultimate goal is critical thinking.”
This organization hopes to bring awareness to over 850 deaths in 2016 and to spike empathy from students who may see the names on the plaza. Groves believes there needs to be an institutional change in order to solve the problem.
“It’s not just police. I realize there are good police,” Groves said. “There are good people that work in these institutions, but these institutions need to change.”
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Groves said believes there is not enough conservation about the issue.
“The biggest barrier we face is that people aren’t talking about it,” Groves said.
Reporter Tony Villalobos May can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter at @TonytheGnarly.
SM • Oct 24, 2016 at 12:55 pm
I would like to know how you are defining “killed by police brutality”. Is this everyone who has died in confrontation with police regardless of the circumstances, or are all the names from situations in which the officers truly acted “brutally”. If this list includes individuals who died in a confrontation after attempting or threatening harm to the officers or other individuals, the consequences are tragic, but I hardly believe it fair to declare them victims of police brutality. Applying this term, as well as treating all officers and departments as though they are responsible for actions committed by others, only dilutes the impact of discussing true instances of wrongdoing.
Thomas Creo • Dec 23, 2016 at 11:56 pm
This was a list of all people killed by police at that point in the year, not all people killed by “brutality.”