COLLEGE PARK, Md.
On the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a bus, University of Maryland students protested what they called racial injustice by campus police.
The College Park campus has been embroiled in a debate about race, equality and integration since a party on Nov. 13, when the UMd. Department of Public Safety responded to a noise complaint about a party of about 100 people, most of them Black, at the New Leonardtown apartments.
Campus police arrested two UMd. students, both 19, and a 23-year-old man who is not a student. The charges included assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, and two officers were treated for minor injuries, said Maj. Cathy Atwell, a campus police spokeswoman.
Some students, however, said police waved nightsticks, squirted pepper spray on students and showed their guns.
“They were pulling out their pistols, and the two young men (the arrested students) were peaceful,” said sophomore Chris Graham-Egbo, a Black student who said the incident was a sign of a major problem on campus.
Last week, a few dozen students marched across the campus — demanding an apology from police, an investigation and a pledge to end police brutality and racial profiling. They also insisted that all charges be dropped.
