Johns Hopkins Students Demand End to ICE Contracts, No Armed Police on Campus
Students at Johns Hopkins University
organized a month-long sit-in of their campus administration
building, Garland Hall, to stand against the university's plans
for an armed campus police force and its contracts with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They demanded the
cancellation of ICE contracts, set to expire this year, and a
pledge that all money generated by previous contracts, about $1.7
million, would be donated to an immigration defence fund.
Students firmly rejected detention of asylum seekers and
criminalization of immigrants and demanded that their university
play no part in such crimes. Throughout the month-long sit-in the
voice of students could be heard loud and clear, "No Armed Police on
Campus! No ICE Contracts!"
One organizer of the sit-in explained, "Very dangerous
state
legislation has just passed, granting this university, which is a
repeat offender in terms of crimes against Baltimore city
residents, with police power. Seventy-five percent of the
students at Johns Hopkins said they did not want the police
force. Several community associations, primarily across
Baltimore, also said that they did not want this armed force.
"There was a letter written by 100 faculty members to
the
administration who also said they wanted to disarm, de-escalate,
de-fund this machine of force that was going to happen. They
called for other solutions and investment and things like
mediation and community-driven alternatives to policing. As a
public health institution, Johns Hopkins University knows better
and knows that more policing does not equate with less crime, but
that more policing actually causes more anxiety and public health
concerns around communities, causes the extraction of wealth from
communities and also normalizes state-sanctioned violence and
terror against black and brown bodies across the U.S."
 The faculty passed a
unanimous resolution in support of the
students. Community support grew over the course of the sit-in,
with community organizations and church groups visiting students
and publicly expressing their support. With this support, the
students raised more than $2,700 for food and other
necessities.
President Daniels repeatedly refused to meet with
students
about their concerns unless they left the administration
building. Instead, students put leaflets and banners up and
organized meetings and various events to inform their fellow
students and all concerned about the need to block an armed
police force on campus and to reject any relations with ICE. They
made a clear connection between the use of force against
immigrants at the border with Mexico and use of force against
students, especially minorities, who are routinely brutalized and
profiled. Baltimore police are already known for their killing of
unarmed African Americans. Students have no doubt a private armed
police force on campus, unaccountable to the public, would be even
worse.
They pointed to the on-going struggle in Baltimore for
justice
for Tyrone West, an African American killed by police from Morgan
State University in July 2013. Morgan State's private armed force
is being used by Johns Hopkins as the model for its force.
Students and the community are also well aware that in the last
several years, campus police officers have used racist profiling
and force in handling incidents, including those involving
students with mental health issues. These are warranted concerns
in light of an incident in April where an African American
couple, unarmed and fully compliant during a traffic stop, were
shot and injured by police, including an officer from Yale's
police department.
Students rejected the administration claims that armed
police
would make the campus more safe. Many women students said
investigating sexual assaults on campus, for example, would do a
lot more to provide for the safety of students.
The university also threatened students with
disciplinary actions. They refused to put anything in writing in regard
to the concerns raised, but did create a paper trail for "violations"
by the students, "to pursue disciplinary actions against students as
soon as the sit-in is over," as one organizer put it. "We've heard
reports that the Dean's Office has been calling faculty members,
especially faculty members who are in more precarious positions, and
threatening them, to discourage them from supporting the sit-in," the
student said. Anyone who is stepping in the space is also being pursued
and surveilled in these ways, which is extremely alarming and which
actually gives credibility to our concerns about what Hopkins would do
with its own private, armed police force on campus and beyond and in
the community."
The administration also refused a student and faculty
proposal
for mediation to address their concerns and resolve the problems.
It also rejected calls from students and faculty for
more public meetings so that people in the community could voice
their concerns about ICE, police profiling and killings, and
alternatives to use of force.
On May 1, after weeks of the administration's refusals
to
meet, the students shut down Garland Hall, chaining the doors
shut and chaining themselves to railings and staircases inside.
They left open the door to the president's office. Posters and
leaflets were put up on the windows and doors throughout the
building, detailing their concerns. A large banner on the
staircase read, "No private police. No ICE contracts. Justice for
Tyrone West."
 
On May 5, President Daniels said he would meet with
students,
but only outside the building, which most saw as a ploy to
demobilize them. Students called for a neutral, mutually
agreed-upon mediator to conduct the negotiations. They demanded
that students, professors and staff who participated in the
protests not be punished, and to be let back into the building
and not be arrested if the talks went awry.
Daniels refused and called in the police to clear the
building. A force of more than 80 police descended on the
building. Seven students were arrested. As they were forced out,
students' militant chants made clear they will continue to
fight.
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 17 - May 11, 2019
Article Link:
Johns Hopkins Students Demand End to ICE Contracts, No Armed Police on Campus
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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