Letter: University Police Are Obsolete in Incidents of Racist Violence
UnSafe U protesters gather at the Public Safety Building on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City to protest the actions of officers involved in the Lauren McCluskey case on Aug. 6, 2020. (Chronicle archives)
December 23, 2021
During the fall semester of 2021, multiple incidents occurred on our campus where Black students, and people who were not students, experienced racist attacks in ways that justifiably angered the community. In ways that we have seen before, and sadly are no longer surprising or unexpected. The fact that these incidents occurred on our campus was something that was kept quiet for months on the institution’s behalf, and the community at large only became aware once those impacted by such violence protested against the institution’s silence. Once the community became aware and began to mobilize, the institution was no longer able to be silent, but their response was even more disappointing. Their response was so disappointing, that we read it with even less hope for a campus free from racist violence than we had during their time of abdication.
One aspect of their response, in particular, is something incredibly important to note as we understand the failure to address such issues. As their statement says, “Both incidents were reported to University Police on Dec. 19, 2021, and the agency is now actively investigating the issue.” The problem lies within this exact trust that they have for policing — as if policing has been a reliable way to address racist violence instead of assisting in it. The problem lies within their exact trust of internal university processes when such internal processes have only been a detriment to students. How are we being told that we must trust that the very system that failed us will be the system to heal us?
What the University fails to understand is that policing was established precisely to assist and protect the very violence which we are protesting against. Policing in America, from the very beginning of its roots, was established to protect a nation and ideology that promoted the kinds of attacks we witnessed on our campus fall semester. Police were in fact the very reason why so many social justice movements were so bloody. Police were the reason the state was allowed to murder and criminalize those who fought against racism and classism. Police were the reason why a woman who reported to them 20+ times was murdered on our very campus. This reality is contrary to the idea that police simply exist to protect polite society and keep it polite. An idea that many in our higher education environments continue to blindly believe when evidence in front of their eyes proves otherwise.
University president Taylor Randall, someone whose appointment I was critical of in campus media at the beginning of fall semester, said in his follow-up statement: “improve education and training, and identify recommendations for making meaningful change” as actionable initiatives being taken on the institution’s part. What Randall and the rest of the University’s senior leaders fail to realize is that it doesn’t matter how many new workshops they introduce and how many town halls they host. None of this matters if the institution is not willing to make material changes in the lives of students who continuously face racist, patriarchal, transphobic and xenophobic violence under their watch. The University’s police are obsolete, the University’s internal processes are obsolete, repeating activists’ buzzwords in public statements is obsolete and new training doesn’t change these realities. It is time for the institution to abolish the police department, and their internal agencies that allowed for this to happen, in order to reallocate every last one of their funds to networks, organizations and basic necessities that will truly ensure our safety and inclusivity.
— Ermiya Fanaeian, University of Utah student
AABW • Feb 2, 2022 at 11:00 pm
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/8/bill_de_blasio_nypd_police_funding
Perhaps best summed up here: “But when we say “defund the police today,” we do not mean that tomorrow you’re going to wake up and not find a single police officer around. That is not what defunding the police means right now at this moment. What it really means, Amy — and it’s very rational, and it’s very reasonable — is that we need to take cops out of our schools, cops out of addressing mental health crises, cops out of addressing homelessness, and reallocate those resources to services, to adequate housing, to case management, to economic opportunities in our community, to reinstate programs like the Summer Youth Employment Program, to make sure that we have, for example, protective equipment for healthcare workers, making sure that we have clinics and hospitals and access to healthcare for Black and Brown people, for undocumented people in our communities, better buses and better infrastructure and better transportation.
So what we’re saying is, let the cops do what the cops are supposed to do: keep people safe. They are not social workers. They are not mental health professionals. They are not educators. So they are actually engaging in activity that does not match the qualifications nor the criteria of a police officer. That is not what they are trained to do in the police academy, so why are we sending them to address things that have nothing to do with them?” — Linda Sarsour
Then again, there are very good texts regarding how to sub for the police here- https://www.versobooks.com/books/2530-police
The police is rooted in white supremacy and the 19th century slave trade and anti-labor movement. The increasing military industrial complex combined with the police is definitely not needed at all.
John Hedberg • Jan 3, 2022 at 10:36 am
Letting a policeman speak for the police:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjiqS8gPPB0&list=WL&index=19&t=256s
Relevant perspective by Professor John McWhorter of Columbia University, a New York Times columnist:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/696856/woke-racism-by-john-mcwhorter/
John Hedberg • Dec 31, 2021 at 10:26 am
So, you stereotype an entire color of people as racist & evil (blue) while you accuse that whole group without evidence? That’s almost the definition of racism, what you’re doing. I’ve been harassed by people who didn’t look like me on campus, once for months on end, I was assaulted twice in Peterson, and I’m Euro-American, male, straight, and Christian. When I reported these incidents to University officials, I was the one accused of racism and discrimination, without any effort to investigate or corroborate what happened to me. If anything, I’d say this university is biased against Euro-Americans, since they threatened me with punishment for reporting harassment and assault that was aimed at me just for being there. Maybe that’s the reason Lauren is dead: she was the wrong color, so her reports were simply dismissed by the same campus official who said to me, “Now you know what it feels like”, as if nobody Euro- has ever grown up dirt poor in a bad neighborhood and had to withstand adversity and discrimination on a daily basis (I did: my mother was an addict).
Don’t you get tired of the constant pity party about race, as if suffering and discrimination don’t happen to everyone, regardless of identity? As if it doesn’t matter, or it means less, or people don’t feel it as much, when it happens to folks who identify a certain way? Because people who believed these things and dehumanized each other ran Jim Crow in the South, ran Kristallnacht and concentration camps in National Socialist Deutschland, are running such camps today in Western China, and they were also responsible for the savage “cultural revolutions” and genocides which happened throughout the 20th Century in places like Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia, Soviet Europe, Communist China, and the former Yugoslavia, to name a few situations where literally hundreds of thousands to tens of millions died when folks rationalized dehumanizing others, as if their hatreds were valid when other peoples’ were not, or as if the normal human strengths and imperfections of others were not the equal of our own.
You hate people in blue, and you think systemic racism is still active in a United States which has already codified equality through the efforts of Dr. King and many others of all identities over 400 years, finally succeeding with overwhelming support more than 50 years ago. All kinds of bigotries will always exist, mostly because people continue to tell each other that their own bigotry is justified while everyone else’s is not. When we replace all bigotry with a love of all God’s children as equally fallible yet equally beautiful, that won’t be the end of suffering in life, or of oppression that stretches in all directions when any people’s circumstances are poor, but it does counter-act and uplift our common humanity in the midst of life’s inevitable suffering, and it teaches us to shun hatred for compassion, for genuine caring about the well-being and thriving of all the children around us who were also created by an Infinite Love which is still there, if we’re willing to do the work, find that worth reflected in diverse ways in ourselves and each other, and build our lives in common around that enduring flame of light, life, and love.
In a democracy, police generally do what they’re taught, and it’s up to us to be cognizant enough to pass good laws and hold ourselves and each other accountable, since civilization is a universal responsibility which never sleeps: identifying and expressing the best standards of love, science, and society is always up to each one of us, and it should be obvious by the 21st Century that no group in history has ever been homogenous about anything, we’re all so diverse as individuals. So it’s as individuals that we find and see worth, and encourage it, develop it, and “deploy” it for the well-being, not just of everyone here, but of all the children who will be here, for their happiness and well-being, and hopefully the well-being of all God’s creatures, as well.
Let me know what you think. Gandhi indicated that the real devils are within all of us, and it’s this inner battle against hatred where the real war is won, by love and understanding, acceptance, appreciation, and even in the midst of inevitable suffering, by joy in being able to share the burdens and the victories together. Aim well!
With Love,
J Hedberg
Gary Segers • Dec 30, 2021 at 11:19 am
I appreciate Ms. Fanaeian concerns. However, her suggestion to abolish the police department without any specific recommendations to resolve these issues is questionable. Funding “networks, organizations and basic necessities” means what?
I re-read the statement by President Taylor and it seemed obvious to me that he felt mistakes were made by the administration and he stated specific actions the University will be taking. Additionally the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities is very specific. Let’s see what comes out of their March 2022 report.
Ryan Whipple • Dec 30, 2021 at 9:24 am
Saying that the U police department is obsolete with out providing a single viable alternative is not helpful.