News
Stanford Students Protest Police Brutality
by Keun Lee
Staff Writer

Stanford students observed the National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality in a rally held at White Plaza on Oct. 23. Hosted by M.E.Ch.A, (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Azatlan), the rally featured student speakers, an open-mic forum, and performance by a hip-hop duo, Company of Prophets.

Racial profiling and inhumane treatment of the Mexican illegal immigrants by the US border patrol were the main points of protest at the demonstration, where about a hundred people participated.

Several different minority organizations at Stanford were present in support of the rally. Members of the Black Student Union, Stanford NAACP, Stanford American Indian Organization, Stanford Asian American Activist Coalition as well as M.E.Ch.A dressed in black and constituted about half the audience at the rally.

Large props dominated the scene. Hanging by the White Plaza platform was an oversize poster depicting a traffic sign frequently found near the US-Mexican border, in which drivers are warned of illegal immigrants crossing the road. Also present was a makeshift cardboard wall symbolizing the US-Mexican border, decorated with white ribbons bearing names of the people who died trying to cross the border last year. MEChA member Pricilla Waters was one of the first to speak out at the rally, condemning the US law enforcement system as a Ôcriminal injustice system.' "It is our duty to let Stanford know we ain't down with racial profiling, we ain't down with the violence against us, and we ain't down with police brutality. So I need your help to let Stanford know what's going on. We gotta represent," she addressed the crowd, leading them in a chant of "stop police violence -- break the code of silence!"

In a later speech, Alfonso Gonzales, a graduate student in Latin American Studies at Stanford, characterized police brutality as part of a bigger problem. "We gotta look at this wall right here [pointing to the cardboard wall] as the structural manifestation of not only police brutality, but brutality in general. This wall represents not only the separation of two worlds, but the oppression of 215 million people, children in Latin America who live in poverty. We need to think of police brutality as being part of a bigger system that has to repress, a system that has to hold poor people down."

Hostility towards the US border patrol and the US Immigration and Naturalization Service was eminent in speeches of many of the student speakers at the rally. The US government and the aggressive tactics used by its border control forces were blamed for the deaths of some 700 Mexican people who perished trying to cross the border since 1993.

Some students in the audience expressed dismay at the negative presentation of the US law enforcement. " I think they are really not representing both sides of the issue here," said Zachary Haldeman, a junior at Stanford. "They neglect to mention how many of those died crossing the border were armed when they came across the border. How many INS officers have been killed by people crossing the border, they didn't mention that either. It's not just an issue of police brutality when INS is forced to defend itself in many cases against people who come across the border armed. I am sure there are cases of police brutality, but not all the blame lies on the INS and the border patrol. And I don't think we should be memorializing murderers."

Reacting to such criticism, MEChA co-chair Lolito Roibal said, "Most people don't cross the border because they are criminals but because they need jobs. Does this mean that people should die or be put into prison? Their only crime is that it is illegal to cross the border. These aren't violent crimes. They are just trying to walk across the street. That's their only crime."

Leti Ramirez, also a MEChA co-chair, added, "They are not our enemy. What is the motivation to spend millions of dollars on technology to keep these people out? We should all recognize the fact that we depend on their labor. Labor of immigrants has really made the success of America possible. It is a slanted view that immigrants are here just to take advantage of the system, when in reality they are making this system possible by providing labor."

In the open-mic session that followed student speeches, several students shared emotional accounts of their personal experiences with racial profiling and police brutality. Eddie Lee, a sophomore at Stanford, found these stories remarkable. "Honestly, I've never been arrested, and as an Asian I've never really faced racism from police. But it's amazing to see just how many people here have been affected by police brutality, and just how much racism and injustice there is in our country."

Page last modified on Thursday, 02-Mar-2006 00:12:43 MST.