University Police representatives, including Chief David Mitchell, listen to a panel during a town hall meeting held in the Nyumburu Cultural Center to discuss the handling of the Freddie Gray protests and subsequent riots on Thursday, April 30.
A town hall last night brought students together to discuss the protests in Baltimore, which they recognized both with moments of silence for victims of the violence and with shouted outbursts about police brutality.
More than 150 students, as well as University Police officers and panelist Del. Alonzo Washington (D-Prince George’s), gathered for a town hall meeting hosted by Community Roots UMD in the Nyumburu Cultural Center’s multipurpose room to discuss, reflect and debate on the unrest in Baltimore after days of violent demonstrations and protest.
“We have to talk about the larger context for this,” African-American studies professor Jason Nichols said. “We have to talk about the larger conditions that created the situation and not just when the emergency started.”
Tensions peaked Monday after the funeral of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who died April 19 from a spinal cord injury he suffered while in police custody. The official cause of death is unknown, although widespread speculation links Gray’s death to a police “rough ride.”
In response to the violent demonstrations, Gov. Larry Hogan declared Baltimore in a state of emergency, calling in the National Guard on Monday, and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake instituted Tuesday a citywide curfew at 10 p.m.
Erica Puentes, the president of Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society, said she does not approve of Hogan’s and Rawlings-Blake’s reactions to the riots.
“Hogan declared Baltimore in a state of emergency,” the sophomore American studies major said. “I find that ironic because Baltimore was already in a state of emergency when most of the residents are under the poverty line.”
Puentes added she believes the National Guard going to Baltimore will only escalate the tension between the city’s citizens and law enforcement.
University Police Chief David Mitchell and other members of the police force sat in the front row of the town hall surrounded by student dissenters and listened to their concerns regarding police brutality.
Many people’s complaints and frustrations are justified, said Mitchell, who was not on the panel.
“We are not the perfect profession by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “We are a profession that has had an ugly past. We’ve also had officers that have done wrong, and they need to be held accountable when that happens.”
Washington said he has proposed legislation in the General Assembly mandating that independent investigations are carried out whenever a police officer kills a citizen, under any circumstance.
Mitchell said he believes an independent review process could help restore the public’s trust in police through increased transparency.
“There is a crisis of confidence in policing,” he said. “We have lost, in many ways, our legitimacy as police officers. We need to restore public trust.”
Students used discussion of the issues in Baltimore to explore larger societal conflicts, such as institutional racism and systematic oppression.
All the panelists, including African-American studies professor Robert Choflet, agreed larger issues needed to be addressed in order to prevent future incidents of police violence.
“The actual appropriate response would be to work to create conditions different from conditions that created this crisis in the first place,” Choflet said.
