Updated: 3:00 PM EST, November 10, 2015
Tuscaloosa, AL police conducted a rough arrest of three University of Alabama students early Sunday morning and one student was tasered.
The police action was caught on a series of brutal cell phone videos obtained and published by the student newspaper, the Crimson White.
The videos show multiple Tuscaloosa police officer grab three students from an off campus apartment and throw them onto the concrete hallway where they are arrested and one is tased.
On Tuesday, Police Chief Steve Anderson released the names of the three officers who have been placed on paid leave as an investigation is conducted into the incident.
According to AL.com, Anderson named the officers “to ensure transparency and accountability.” The officers are named James Kent, Phillip Champion and Gregory Pimm.
The three out of state UA students were charged with varying offenses ranging from arrested on charges of obstructing governmental operations and resisting arrest to harassment.
Rise News has also obtained video of the incident from the floor above. (Video sent in from witness on scene.
The officers also curse at the students and enter the apartment numerous times after the arrest, even though it is not clear that they had cause to do so.
Read more and watch the full videos on the Crimson White website.
.@TuscaloosaPD has forwarded videos of an arrest made this morning to internal affairs investigators. Full investigation to be conducted.
— City of Tuscaloosa (@tuscaloosacity) November 9, 2015
Cover Photo Credit: Crimson White/ Screenshot
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Racist Attack Targeted At American University Black Sorority
American University in Washington, D.C. is at the center of its second racially driven hate act in eight months.
According to a statement released by the university, bananas were left hanging from what was designed to look like nooses on three separate locations on campus.
The bananas were “marked with the letters AKA”, the letters of a predominantly black sorority.
Last September, similar incidents occurred at American including an episode when someone threw a rotten banana at a student..
Students took to social media to express their anger with the racially charged incident.
It’s finals week and instead of studying, black girls are wondering who is going around scaring them, THIS IS UNFAIR! @AmericanU
— calkie $wag di$trict (@Calkielator_97) May 1, 2017
@AmericanU These incidents have happened over and over again and AU management pretend nothing happened. Shame on @AmericanU .
— luka (@lukssii) May 1, 2017
i’m gonna be fucking sick @AmericanU if this keeps happening i might as well leave this school now. you must not need my money.
— shut up and listen (@kandall44) May 1, 2017
@annamgardner_ @AmericanU this echoes an incident in September and anyone responsible DOES NOT belong in our community.
— Chelsea Cirruzzo (@ChelseaCirruzzo) May 1, 2017
@AmericanU Those responsible should be expelled and brought up on criminal charges. Absolutely unacceptable.
— Kenny Lorber (@KMLorbz) May 1, 2017
American’s student body president Taylor Dumpson (who happens to be the college’s first black woman SGA president) released a statement about the incident.
“It is disheartening and immensely frustrating that we are still dealing with this issue after recent conversations, dialogues, and town halls surrounding race relations on campus,” Dumpson said. “But this is exactly why we need to do more than just have conversations but move in a direction towards more tangible solutions to prevent incidents like these from occurring in the future.”
Cover Photo Credit: American University/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Is This South Africa’s Tiananmen Square Moment?
Bryce Swerhun had spent most of his time in Johannesburg safely away from the sounds of explosions near the University Of The Witwatersrand (Wits).
But something drew him to the campus on October 10 as scores of angry students gathered in a large protest for the elimination of college fees across the country.
What Swerhun, a Canadian who is in South Africa doing field work for his PhD program at City University of Hong Kong, saw there was nothing short of government sanctioned violence against young people on a scale rarely seen in liberal democracies.
Student organizers of the so called #FeesMustFall movement warned private security gathered on the steps of the Great Hall at the center of Wits’ campus that some among their number may start hurling stones at them unless they opened the doors to the building.
By the time Swerhun entered through the visitor gate and walked upon the scene, some protestors were indeed throwing stones at the security guards.
Then the police got involved.
“I saw the water cannon truck shoot up and spray the students below,” Swerhun said in an interview with RISE NEWS.
Swerhun said that “several hundred” student protestors were in the area around the Great Hall at the height of the clashes and that police were being very heavy-handed in the way in which they were breaking up the group.
Tear gas canisters leaving trails of smoke as they hit the ground. Rubber bullets thumping through the air. People yelling. People running.
Through the chaos in front of the Great Hall, Swerhun said that he saw one scene that reminded him of the troubling racist past of South Africa.
A white police officer had a group of black protestors cornered while allowing other students to freely pass. When a group of white students walked behind the officer without being stopped, the cornered black students started to argue how unfair it was.
This is what has become of Wits, one of the world’s top universities. Sad no? pic.twitter.com/3ja1OfCV0g
— Sure Kamhunga (@SureKamhunga) October 11, 2016
At a certain point, Swerhun decided that he had seen enough and that he wanted to get back to the safety of his hotel room.
He walked behind the Great Hall, where he spotted a church where some students seemed to be gathered.
He thought that he could escape from the campus by going through the church.
“The priest then slumped over and then the blood was pouring out. They shot him because he defied them.”
What follows sounds like it is straight out of movie.
“There was a significant moment that reminded me of Tiananmen Square,” Swerhun said.
When he reached the church, most of the students in the area where gathered in a parking lot. There he saw a priest in white robes standing in the entrance.
“He [the priest] seemed to be making a statement, that he was there and it was a place of refuge,” Swerhun said.
But then a massive armored police vehicle started racing towards the church.
“It was moving at quite a speed and everyone is running away,” Swerhun said. “When I get behind a parked car, I see the priest put his arm and the vehicle backed up and left.”
Joy swept through the crowd but it was a short-lived feeling.
“Another armored vehicle came and started shooting rubber bullets at random, Swerhun said. “The priest then slumped over and then the blood was pouring out. They shot him because he defied them.”
Swerhun said that the shooting of the priest had a profound impact on the people who witnessed it.
“Some people got really angry and I saw someone say ‘call up the people with the petrol bombs.'”
“This was nothing but a brutal show of state force,” Swerhun said. “Those police in the vehicle were not in any danger.”
The priest was then brought into the church were he was tended to by private paramedics.
Despite being shot in the face with at least one rubber bullet, he was able to walk out of the church to a waiting car.
While the violence has largely been ignored by the world’s media, it shouldn’t be.
The issue is unlikely to go away even though things are starting to calm down on the streets.
Sure Kamhunga, a political commentator who has a large Twitter following said in an interview with RISE NEWS that the government should do more to end the clashes.
“Meet the student body. Listen to their demands. Offer a solution that paves way for mutual understanding,” Kamhunga said in way of advice to President Jacob Zuma’s government. “Students have already proposed a funding model and that is a good start to reach a common understanding and solution.”
Calling Young South African Writers, Journalists And Leaders: Tell Your Story And Make A Difference
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
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Showdown In Uganda Looms As Longtime Leader And Challenger Are Expected To Cross Paths
Former prime minister Amama Mbabazi, who is running as an independent candidate in Uganda’s presidential election in February, is likely to cross paths with President Yoweri Museveni on January 10 in Mbale district. The president is running under the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) banner. Whereas Mr Mbabazi will be in Mbale to campaign, President Museveni… Read More
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