By Stephanie Smith
An incident between three officers of the Department of Public Safety–two African American and one Caucasian–and several African American students occurred in the Red Barn at the Zeta Phi Beta party on the night of Friday, November 16th. Allegations of excessive force have been filed against the department by over 15 African American students, although no formal complaints have been filed against the officers. As of Saturday, November 17th, at 2:45pm, an investigation was begun by administrative authorities of the Department of Public Safety and administrators, including Taylor Archer and Dr. Garrison.
Problems arose around 12:30 am, when a verbal confrontation began between two African American students. When the student who was being verbally abused moved to challenge the other individual, five to seven friends stepped forward to restrain him. Police officials observed that the student was struggling against the restraint and responded by having an officer place his arms around the student and escort him outside. Once outside, the student was interviewed and released.Two African American students attempted to interrupt the actions taken by the officer. One student was physically escorted outside into a squad car and received a citation for interfering with government procedure, and the other student was placed in handcuffs and guided outside.
An NAACP representative responded to the incident, saying, “Many of those present felt that unnecessary force was used in a situation that we felt had already been diffused. The officers placed the handcuffs on one student backwards and left marks on his arms from the struggle it took to take them off…overall it was an embarrassing situation for all students involved.”
Lieutenant Fitzgerald of the Department of Public Safety explains, “The officer did use force in removing the individual by wrapping his arms around the individual; however, this was not excessive force. It was the only force reasonable and necessary for the officer to control the situation, which was an individual who was being restrained by others and he continued to struggle, even as the officer was removing him from the Red Barn.”
The NAACP chapter held an open forum on Wednesday, November 28th, to allow the students present and affected by the event to talk with officers from the Department of Public Safety concerning their feelings.
