Arrested Texas student tries, and fails, to kick police off campus
Texas State's student government voted down a resolution calling for the dissolution of the school's police.
Interestingly enough, the student senator who authored the resolution was recently arrested during an anti-Pres. Donald Trump incident.
Texas State University’s student government has rejected a resolution calling for the dissolution of the school’s police department.
This comes after four students were arrested for “various charges” during a protest where a “Make America Great Again” hat was ripped off of someone’s head, as previously reported by Campus Reform.
[RELATED: Texas State releases more details about MAGA hat arrests]
Texas State student government Sen. Claudia Gasponi, a student arrested during the protest, authored the resolution titled “The Removal of Excessive and Abusive Policing Resolution,”
The resolution, obtained by Campus Reform, states that “over-policing specifically targets and endangers people of color.”
“In order to be truly inclusive, the needs of people of color must be set as a priority and not an afterthought, especially in an institution that historically has disenfranchised people of color,” Gasponi states in the document.
The student senator says that the university police officers do not receive near enough training on issues like LGBTQIA+, de-escalation, and racial and disability-oriented sensitivity.
The senator even accuses the police department of using their power “in favor of white supremacists.”
“University Police Department has been documented to use their discretion in favor of white supremacists, releasing 5 trespassing violent militarized white supremacists with with [sic] no charges,” states the resolution, referencing a December 2017 incident.
The resolution went up to the Texas State student government senate floor late Wednesday night, and failed by a vote of 4 yays, 17 nays, and 4 abstentions, according to a student who was at the meeting.
Sebastian Quaid, the chairman of Young Conservatives of Texas at Texas State University, told Campus Reform that he thinks the resolution is a terrible idea, and feels safer with police on campus.
“In no way, shape, or form do I think the UPD needs to be abolished. The ironic thing...about this resolution is [that] it was the leftist organizations [which] are the ones who asked for more police due to the alt-right biker gang that never showed,” Quaid said. “I have been ‘in trouble’ with the law on campus, most serious [incident] was putting up fliers about a student government meeting, and I feel safer with police on campus, especially if alt-right/left organizations are allowed to be on campus.”
Quaid also expressed that while he has his disagreements with the police, he agrees with them on the four arrests made recently.
“With everything going on at campus, we need our police. Do I have my problems with the police and government? Sure, but not in this instance. Four students ‘of color’ broke the law and four students ‘of color’ were arrested as a result,” the Young Conservatives of Texas chairman told Campus Reform. “There’s no conspiracy here. We have it on video what happened and I side with the police on this issue.”
While the resolution calling for the dissolution of the university police department did not pass, another one condemning their actions did. Titled “A Resolution of Disapproval of the UPD Actions and the Implementation of De-escalation and Ally Training for all UPD Officers,” according to Sam Guerrero, a journalist at the student newspaper.
[RELATED: Texas tackles free speech after Trump exec. order]
The resolution calls for the police department to go through more training on how to handle protests and de-escalation procedures.
In addition, in passing the resolution, the Texas State student government also “strongly encourages” that all new hires in the police department become “Official Allies of Texas State” through training with the school’s Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion, as well as meeting with the office every six months.
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