5 times universities and students were anti-cop in 2022
After the death of George Floyd in 2020, 'Defund the police' and other anti-cop ideas became pervasive at universities and among students.
Below are five times universities and students supported ideas antagonistic to law enforcement in 2022.
After the death of George Floyd in 2020, “Defund the police” and other anti-cop ideas became pervasive at universities and among students. Below are five times universities and students supported ideas antagonistic to law enforcement in 2022.
5. Resignation, protests at SUNY Brockport ahead of cop-killer’s speaking event
SUNY Brockport hosted Jalil Muntaqim for an Apr. 6 event that characterized the man who served nearly 50 years in jail for killing two police officers as a “political prisoner.” In protest of the ex-convict’s speaking invitation, Daniel Varrenti, a former police chief, resigned his adjunct professor position.
Dozens of concerned citizens as well as former and current members of law enforcement peacefully gathered on campus in front of the SUNY Brockport President’s House on March 21 to protest the university’s decision to bring a convicted cop killer to speak on campus.
4. ’Do not call the police’: Activist video encourages attack victims to ‘not rely’ on law enforcement
A self-defense class at St. Edward’s University apparently assigned a video to students that instructed them to not call the police in the case of a “racist attack.”
The video, created by the Barnard Center for Research on Women, offered students six tips on how to intervene in the case of an attack based on an “abolitionist approach to bystander intervention that does not rely on the police.”
Professors and students across the University of California (UC) system earlier this year held a zoom meeting to discuss the abolition of the police, yet admitted that this is impossible in today’s America.
PhD candidate and presenter Katie Latimer posed the question “What can we do instead of calling the police?”
She answered her own question with, “There isn’t a lot of other options. I’ve gone down the spreadsheet of alternatives to the police phone numbers, and they all direct you back to the police eventually.”
2. Despite abnormally high crime rates, professor wants cops off campus
On July 21, Brandon Robinson, Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of California Riverside (UCR), tweeted “Get the Cops Off Campus!” in response to the university’s decision to include new safety personnel on campus.
Additions to the police force came at the recommendation of the university’s “Campus Safety Task Force,” which was organized by the “Black Student Experience Work Group” that convened in the wake of protests over the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
1. ANALYSIS: UC Davis’s anti-cop history makes administration unprepared for campus protest
UC Davis has made numerous efforts to defund its police department, leaving university officials unprepared for protests such as the late October incident.
“Based on both local and systemwide recommendations, three vacant uniformed officer positions in the UC Davis Police Department have been eliminated, resulting in funds for three key positions to support reforms: a public safety policy analyst in Student Affairs; an analyst position to support data, accreditation and transparency efforts within the Police Department; and a new position dedicated to the Health 34 initiative,” UC Davis wrote in a press release.
