WESTFIELD – The Westfield State University die-in was not held back by the sleet last week. The march began in Mod-Hall and serpentined around the campus, reaching each dormitory, in response to the unequal treatment by law-enforcement imposed on the black community.
Jon Conologue, executive director of residential life, said in an email, “The march that was held by several university students and employees last Friday afternoon was interrupted by several students yelling inappropriate, ignorant and inflammatory comments from their residence hall windows. This is behavior unbecoming and unworthy of members of the Westfield State University community.”
The weekend before, a protest by students occured after the non-indictment of officers who were responsible for the death of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Gardner in New York.
The march and die-in was organized by Simbrit Paskins, a senior majoring in Spanish, ethnic and gender studies, and minoring in communications.
Students protesting were accompanied by faculty members, mostly from the ethnic and gender studies department. None could say they saw any sign of the criminal justice faculty beforehand, and none marched alongside faculty.
Paskins organized the previous protest and said, “The overall feeling was the best – there was togetherness.”
“The purpose of meeting and marching is to reflect solidarity with people across the nation against police brutalities and support families affected by it. Here at Westfield we don’t agree with it and we want to change it,” Paskins continued, “No one seemed angry enough about it. We wanted to remind people and make them angry enough to make the change.”
Protestors were met with negativity by some students and this was later addressed by University President Liz Preston. Preston said that students were peacefully protesting and respect must be tolerated for them.
“I hope each of us will demonstrate the respect and civility toward each other that President Preston emphasized in her message over the weekend. This is the Westfield way,” Conologue said. “Perhaps we can provide a positive example in responding to each other with compassion and reason instead of anger and invective.”
“It’s disappointing that there were two emails regarding the racial slurs,” said sophomore Aaliyah Mercer.”It’s disheartening. It’s sad.”
Protesters chanted “Hands up. Don’t Shoot,” “When Mike Brown got shot, we all got shot,” “They think it’s a game – They think it’s a joke,” “No justice, No peace, No racist-ass police,” and other chants.
There were overwhelming positive remarks from spectators, cheerful whispering, some clapping, high fiving but also negative responses were heard from Davis Hall and Seymour in particular.
At one point, men living in the complex started playing “Bad boys” by Inner Circle from their windows when the protestors gathered in the courtyard. The protestors responded that these were the types of people who love black culture but hate black people.
When asked if they wanted to make a comment, Derek Ditmars a senior communications student said “It’s our peaceful response to a peaceful protest.” His roommate Greg Cane chimed in said, “I actually support the protestors. I hate cops” just not enough to be outside.
Protestors also gathered at the Holyoke Mall last week.
As I was filling up in the food court I saw a couple dozen people that were chanting “the whole damn system is guilty as hell”. The protestors peered over each of the levels of the mall and spectators cheered, clapped, and joined in their chants, along with videotaping and taking photos of the event.
It went on for a few minutes before it was diffused, with another round of applause from the food court.
This week, dozens of students from Boston public schools walked out of class to protest recent grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men.
A separate group of about 100 students marchers blocked a street near South Station. The students marched to police stations and the State House chanting “I Can’t Breathe” and “Hands Up. Don’t Shoot”.
It is a terribly unfortunate situation that many people have addressed by protesting the last few months nationwide and even internationally.
It is amazing to see that students and youths are becoming so actively involved, coming together to change the situation at hand and protest what they see as the unjust non-indictment of these officers.
The militarization of the police has led to the untimely deaths of many civilians across this nation. The motto, “to serve and protect” is losing its value and meaning, which is evident in the amount of activism that has come out of these recent events.
The mobilization youth involvement really shows how important these human rights issues are and that changes need to be made in laws and carried out by law enforcement itself.
Police must be trained better to handle the public, whether it is with an individual or dealing with a crowd. They simply cannot be handed military equipment with a militant mentality when working with a community.
This is not something that is being carried out by just rowdy students and young people. It is being supported by families of victims and spectators alike. It is being supported by Harvard Law students. It is being protested at US embassies in London, and had been rallied for in France.
If so many people across different demographics have disputed the justice system here in America than we must focus our attention on changing it.
Teachers of these students seem to be supportive. Boston schools spokesman Lee McGuire said teachers and leaders had been working with students to make the recent events a “constructive learning experience for all”.
This shows that the youth cannot be contained once they are engaged, especially when the course of these events and police brutality directly impacts every one of them. They are the community.
Turning it into something they can learn from exemplifies democracy in action and how to effectively make changes in the world we live in. There can be no other better type of education.
Erika Hayden is a WSU student, citizen journalist and grassroots writer.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of this publication.
