The Black Student Union held a candlelight vigil Wednesday night to remember the lives lost to police brutality.
Among the attendees were students, faculty and residents of Chico.
At the vigil guest speakers discussed their views on current issues surrounding police brutality. Time was also set aside for student speakers.
“When we say black lives matter, it’s not only about black lives,” a student speaker said. “It’s about all the lives, and all the lives being taken.”
Following the student speakers, candles were passed out to the crowd and lit to honor the lives lost.
“Where we are today, we have an opportunity to light those candles,” guest speaker, Cece Carter said. “We have an opportunity not to worry about the national landscape, but worry about how we move forward.”
The vigil ended with the reading of all victims’ names, and a moment of silence.
To get involved in the Black Student Union, contact them at [email protected].
Kayla Fitzgerald can be reached at [email protected] or @kaylafitz_20 on Twitter.
Rich Johnson // Sep 29, 2016 at 1:11 pm
So pleased to see Chico State students, faculty, and staff holding a candlelight vigil to protest this epidemic of police shootings of unarmed black men and women in the US. Police brutality has no place in modern policing, officers should only use force when needed, as a last resort. The community doesn’t need trigger happy hot-heads policing our streets, such as the cop in Paradise last year who gunned down a DUI suspect without any justification whatsoever.
Just two weeks ago two Chico women students were subjected to excessive force by an angry out-of-control Chico police officer. The officer ended up body slamming one of the women – even though her “crime” was a broken tail-light. The women also tried to enter their house; for these “crimes” the two women are now being prosecuted by Butte County DA Mike Ramsey for resisting arrest. In fact, Ramsey has made this case top priority of his office – he even called a press conference to announce the filing of these minor charges. Adding insult to injury, the Chico Police Chief described the arrest of the two women, one who was body slammed – over a broken tail light – a “textbook arrest”.
Here you are seeing what you often see when you have a case of police brutality, the local DA and the local police brass “close ranks” around the officer who committed police brutality, in this case an angry out-of-control police officer who believed it was ethical to body slam a college co-ed over a broken tail-light. I think even the most impartial observer can readily see excessive force was used in this case, the arresting officer – who shouldn’t even have stopped these women – all evidence indicates he had some sort of animus toward the women – due to an earlier interaction – just let his temper get the best of him, which led to this ludicrous bungled arrest of the college women.
Once again, excessive force has no place in modern policing – it shouldn’t anyway, but many police departments and DA’s – all across the US – and even in Butte County (see Mike Ramsey) – aren’t getting the message, so it’s so great to see the Chico State community coming together to advocate for community based policing. We need local cops to work with the local communities – students too – we don’t need any more excessive violence by police in Chico, as you saw in this broken tail light incident.