Students protest brutality

By Carrie Porche Jones, On-Line Forty-Niner

Monday, October 26, 1998

Dressed in black and carrying signs, about 20 students marched Thursday afternoon from the University Student Union escalators to the Speaker's Platform to protest police brutality.

The march, part of the third annual National Day of Protest, was a precursor to the much larger march that took place later that day in Los Angeles.

The nationwide event is an attempt to rally people who have been victims or know victims of police brutality.

"We are hoping to open up a dialogue so students can come and speak out," said Pablo Alvarez, a Chicano studies major. "We want to make the connection that we are all the human race - black, white, Chicano, gays, everybody."

While holding a large red satin scarf dotted with black ribbons that bore the names of victims of police brutality, Alvarez said there was much more support for the march this year.

Graduate communications student Keri Prout said she is happy she left a campus in Ohio four months ago.

"I am glad I am in California where there is more awareness of what's going on," Prout said. "Back in Ohio, I tried really hard to get people interested, but the responses were negative," she said.

Students took the platform to tell stories of police brutality against themselves, family and friends because of skin color, being gay or being Caucasian with long hair.

Candace Slade, sociology senior, said she had been labeled a gang member from South Central Los Angeles because she is African American.

Other speakers spoke of being pulled over by police for no apparent reason and then handcuffed, beaten and taken to jail.