US University Students Demand Defunding of Campus Police

University students, alumni, and professors demanded on Wednesday the defunding of campus police, as part of the anti-police brutality movement following the killings of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks.

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“The Yale police department has all the powers and privileges afforded to the New Haven police department, yet they do not hold themselves equally accountable to the community members they police,” Black Students for Disarmament at Yale and university student Jaelen King stated.

Activists demand campus police funds be put back into the community development programs, education programs, affordable housing for those at an economic disadvantage.

“The Yale PD must be defunded and dismantled, to end their tyranny on communities of color within the city,” King added.

University of Chicago students recently demonstrated at campus police headquarters demanding they defund and disband them.

“Policing has never worked for the community. They’re not agents of care or protection, they’re agents of harm, materially and systematically,” CareNotCops member Tai Davidson Bajandas stated.

Harvard graduates and pupils also called faculty management for the dissolvement of the campus police forces. According to Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign leaders, college officers repressed Boston protesters after George Floyd’s death.

Campus police forces have a history of racism and repression that has lasted for several decades. In 2019, a Yale University police officer was involved in the shooting of an African-American couple. Harvard University forces also attend to more complaints against black students than other ethnical groups. 

“The problem is the different ways students are surveilled, and how police are used to harass students, often students of color. It’s an entire culture and system of policing we aim to abolish,” said the University of California-Irvine graduate worker Semassa Boko.