It’s been a “hectic” week for Weinberg junior Josh Williams.
He sent out a “listserv blast” on Friday, May 22 describing an incident in which he believed he was racially profiled, and ignited a debate on the nature of race relations and student-police interaction at Northwestern.
On Wednesday night, students, staff and community members packed the Multicultural Center to continue that debate (one that’s been raging, among other places, on the North by Northwestern comment board).
Williams retold his story, and then Northwestern Police chief Bruce Lewis gave a brief summary of NUPD’s policy on racial profiling.
Lewis explained that the police force does indeed have a written policy forbidding racial profiling and that officers who are investigated for and found guilty of racial profiling face punishments ranging from suspension to termination. No Northwestern police officers have been formally disciplined for racial profiling.
Students shared their stories and pressed Lewis for specifics on NUPD policy. Medill senior Delena Turman recounted an incident in which NUPD officers knocked on her door when she and her roommates — all black women — had a small group of friends over. The officers, she said, stayed in her apartment for more than 30 minutes and eventually reported Turman for two separate noise violations — even though, she said, her downstairs neighbors, white males, were having a far noisier party.
“I appreciate you saying that you come from an environment where you’re saddened to hear this because you’re a minority as well,” Turman said to Lewis, himself a black man from New Orleans’ lower ninth. “But it’s not just white cops doing it to black people, it’s black cops doing it to black people, black men doing it to black women,” she said.
Turman even extracted a promise from Lewis to look into her case. She gave him her address, the date of the incident and the names of two of the officers she encountered.
The stories continued — as For Members Only Coordinator Marrion Johnson said, “because of this event, we see that this happens every day.”
One freshman told a story of being stopped by an NUPD officer on University Pl., alone on his way back to Allison Hall around midnight, and being asked for his ID. Another student described a similar experience after walking alone through McCormick Tribune Center, and another described a more physical encounter with two NUPD officers outside PARC — he said the officers were on the lookout for a 6′0” older black male suspect and singled him out even though he is neither old nor six feet. Two of the speakers said that officers asked them whether they were on sports teams.
Lewis said in response to these stories, that, in a case in which the word of a veteran officer with no history of racial profiling is up against the word of a student, with no physical or corroborating evidence, he would likely counsel but not suspend or otherwise punish the officer.
“In terms of trying to substantiate a complaint, it’s difficult. Especially when it’s one person’s word against another,” Lewis said.
Keeanga Taylor, a graduate student, was one of the organizers of the event. She and Weinberg seniors Loren Balhorn and Nithya Krishnan are among a group of students “concerned about racism on this campus.” They organized a march to oppose NUPD policies on immigrants and plan to continue raising awareness.
Taylor said that this event “starts the beginning of a process to get students actively involved in fighting racism on this campus.”
Organizers and attendees were encouraged by the quality of tangible ideas that came out of the forum. One student proposed fireside chats to clarify NUPD “standard procedure” in various situations so that students know when they are being mistreated. Another proposed a constant student presence in NUPD policy-making — an idea Lewis said he is “open” to.
“I wasn’t particularly excited about coming,” Johnson said. “I think forums happen quite a bit.” But Johnson said he was “very happy [he] came, because I think this was a great turnout and that something effective is going to happen.”
And while no policy changes are set in stone, Lewis said the forum “caused me to reflect upon our policies, our practices, and to reassess our training and to continue to work with the community and be active participants and partners, encourage the community to inform me in instances of what they perceive of racial profiling.”
At the very least, Balhorn said, he is hoping that NUPD officers will have letters in their mailboxes tomorrow telling them to stop asking black male students if they’re on the football team.