What began as a gathering of students at the Douglass Campus Center quickly snowballed into a procession of passion surrounding the verdict of the Michael Brown case, where students, professors, and even citizens of New Brunswick participated in a number of chants, emphasizing justice and the faults of the American judicial system. Throughout the initial congregation, everyone got organized, and members from the Peoples Coalition Against Police Brutality gave us guidelines to emphasize non-violence and peaceful protest before the walk to the Brower Commons.
I personally was never part of any protests regarding social justice, so the experience was very new to me, but nevertheless, it will forever leave its mark. It felt really empowering to know that while we were doing this at Rutgers, there were similar protests subsequently occurring at a countless number of places throughout the nation. It was just as Ezra from the Peoples Coalition said, “90 cities broke out in protest over one night.” The number will surely not end there.
If anyone is unfamiliar with the case itself, I will give the most condensed version of the story you will ever hear. Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American male in Missouri, was shot six times by officer Darren Wilson, a police officer in the Ferguson county police department. After an abundance of different forms of evidence, accounts, and investigations, the grand jury decided that Wilson would not be indicted. Immediate civil unrest occurred throughout the entire nation, leading us to question police and justice policies, and the judicial system as a whole.
As we began the walk, I immediately began weaving through the crowd, asking the opinions of the student body. I asked questions revolving around topics of potential racism within the case, opinions of police brutality in relation to the case, and the overall feeling of the American judicial system. When asked of their feelings related to the verdict, a number of people explained how vicious the police force has come to be, saying things like “in a nation notorious for a cop God-complex, this is exactly what I expected and it’s not fair”, and “The kid wasn’t some robot, you know? Six shots is murder. “ Some answers even began to crescendo into yelling, and I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t bring chills down my spine.
“Racism had to be involved, because six shots isn’t self-defense. It’s just as the chants say man: killer cops have got to go.” The answers around racism were almost unanimous; everyone agreed that it was present in some degree. “ This isn’t the sixties. We’re moving backwards.”
As the walk ended at Brower, it seemed as if even more people showed up (there had to be over 500 present), and the chanting was louder than a number of concert halls that I’ve been to. Among powerful speeches by some of the senior members of student organizations, Dr. Brittany Cooper, a faculty member at the university, gave an extremely powerful speech revolving around the full scope of prejudice that our nation has experienced throughout time. “By affirming that black lives matter, it means all lives matter,” she said. “We have nothing to loose but our chains.”
In a world of extreme opinions, I always try to stay leveled and calm, but in this instance, it’s becoming fairly difficult. Police brutality is becoming more and more prevalent of an issue in contemporary society. The police are no longer looked to for safety anymore, but rejected in nervousness or fear. I do believe that they need to be checked, even if it’s something as small as mandating cameras on their uniforms. The fact that Michael Brown’s death stands with so many other minority deaths in the first place is a major problem that needs addressing. I feel for the families, who have unfairly lost their children, and sincerely hope that they are granted the justice that they deserve.
Ian Barbour
Photos by Jonathan Gulo