As hundreds of college students nationwide joined the George Floyd protests over the weekend, police used force against some Black students in incidents that some college leaders said are yet more examples of systemic racism and excessive police action.
“This is the exact kind of policing behavior thousands have been protesting,” tweeted the Georgia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, comparing the incidents to the police actions that resulted in Floyd’s death by “asphyxiation from sustained pressure” according to an independent autopsy report released Monday.
A Black college basketball player was detained by police in Ohio on Friday during a peaceful protest. In Georgia, two Black students were arrested (and later released) after a violent encounter with the police on Saturday. The incidents drew condemnation from college students and presidents as well as university sports officials.
In Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, two students from the historically Black Spelman and Morehouse colleges were dragged out of their car, cuffed and arrested after being shocked with Tasers as they were trying to leave a protest site, reported various publications. Police also smashed their car windows and slashed the tires of their vehicle, said news outlets. All of this was caught on live television by CBS 46.
The victims of what Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called “excessive force” by police were two Black students, Teniyah (also spelled Taniyah in some reports) Pilgrim of Spelman College and Messiah Young of Morehouse College. Spelman’s Student Government Association said Young, who some reports said is a recent Morehouse graduate, had an epileptic seizure while in custody.
Bottoms apologized for the police behavior, reported AJC.com. The two officers, identified as Mark Gardner and Ivory Streeter, were later fired. Bottoms said she and Atlanta police chief Erika Shields made the decision to terminate the two officers after reviewing body camera footage of a video that captured the incident, said an Associated Press report. “Really shocking to watch,” was how Shields described the video.
“There clearly was an excessive use of force,” said Bottoms at a news conference Sunday. “We understand that our officers are working very long hours under an enormous amount of stress, but we also understand that the use of excessive force is never acceptable,” Bottoms said during a news conference Sunday evening.
