I have to write about this, since I go to school here AND because this is appalling.
One of the professors in the Africana Studies Department at SF State University was wrongfully arrested this week for going to his own office at night. Professor Akom was trying to go pick up something from his office at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday night, and the campus police stopped him, thinking that he was breaking in. He told them that he is a professor trying to enter his own office but they did not believe him without even checking his identification. They called the real police and he resisted arrest because he did not do anything, so they put him in jail for that. His bail was $50,000. They finally released him on Wednesday afternoon around 4 pm. About a year ago, the campus police also targeted Prof. Akom in a similar situation of picking something up from his office in the evening, although it did not escalate to imprisonment. This recent incident combined with other cases of racial profiling in our campus have triggered many of us into organizing against this racist and unjust practice. And we are spreading the word about it, because the university is all hushed up about it.
Antwi is also a professor in Ethnic Studies. The irony is that ethnic studies actually started at San Francisco State University.
Also here is an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the situation. Guess who is his lawyer, Matt Gonzales, W00t!
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it is typical of intellectual people to want to take a stand on principle and stand up to cops when one is treated unjustly. This is very foolish and stupid. I have caused myself much trouble by doing this. you can't win against a cop on the street, u just have to obey. if there is a problem confront him in court at a later date. this prof was unfortunately an idiot.
What do you expect from Wackenhut Security?
Wackenhut is a division of DynCorp. SF state ought to terminate their contract. Consider this:
"[DynCorp] is facing a major lawsuit filed by 10,000 Ecuadoreans forced to live (and die) with the impact of DynCorp's toxic crop spraying, "
and
"DynCorp employees in Bosnia, where the company plays a major policing role, have engaged in organized sex-slave trading with girls as young as 12, and DynCorp's Bosnia site supervisor was filmed raping a woman. A subsequent lawsuit, filed by a company whistleblower, alleged that "employees and supervisors from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged passports and [participating in] other immoral acts."
Check out Jeremy Scahill's article on Common Dreams about DynCorp and its subsidiaries for more information.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1101-25.htm
EarthRights International are pursuing an amicus brief regarding DynCorp's actions in Ecuador.
Anyway, with a track record like this, Wackenhut's behavior at SF state doesn't surprise me in the least.
SF State ought to terminate their relationship with Wackenhut, effective immediately.
When I lived on campus at SF State, there was an actual SFPD unit on campus. These were 'real cops' in every sense of the word, right down to doing some of the same stuff these police did,though I doubt they were pimps like the DynCorp people in Bosnia (DynCorp sounds like a comic book name for an evil company).
It's shameful, and I'm glad students are getting up in arms about it.
As far as what JesusJonesSuperstar says, seems to me that you would want to know what the prof has to say before calling him an idiot. Maybe this was the 15th time that he was violated in this way, maybe he had planned on standing up for himself the next time it happened. Resisting arrest and then taking the cops to court for wrongful arrest is a fine way of fighting the racist system, it seems to me, even if it does ask for a lot of self-sacrifice. Plus, it gets it out in the media that this stuff is going on. Instead of calling him an idiot, I'd thank him for making this sort of thing happen less often because he stood up to the cops the way he did. He put himself in harm's way to do it, and he'll have a legal battle (I'll never forgive Matt for giving up after losing the Mayoral race by a sliver, but I'm glad he's a lawyer for people like this prof), and we shoudl thank him for it.
Sure, he's 'caused himself trouble', but for what he probably sees as good reasons, and I would agree, though I wouldn't morally require anybody in his position to fight the cops that way.
wow, tx, thanks for the info... i remember reading about the stuff in ecuador a few years back, but, dang... human trafficking and all that... and i'll bet our taxpayer dollars are lending a helping hand to these mercenaries.
word, jp,
causing yourself "trouble" in order to stand up for your rights and the rights of others is not so much "stupid" as it is brave. honestly, he may not win in court (although people do win civil suits against cops from time to time), but the visibility of the incident will definitely prompt some changes... nuff respect to prof. akom.
peace and blessings
If humans refused to do anything because it might get them into trouble, there'd still be segregated lunch counters, if not slavery.
Fuck that noise, I say.
"Maybe this was the 15th time that he was violated in this way, maybe he had planned on standing up for himself the next time it happened. Resisting arrest and then taking the cops to court for wrongful arrest is a fine way of fighting the racist system,"
"If humans refused to do anything because it might get them into trouble, there'd still be segregated lunch counters, if not slavery."
Activism that is in the public eye, with cameras and witnesses there to to tell "what really happened" is one thing. standing up to a rogue cop when no one is around is another. The scariest moment in my life I ever had was when I questioned the authority of a redneck cop.
yeah, well facing fear is key to having courage...
rosa parks, blessed be, wasn't in front of any cameras and (friendly) witnesses when she took her stand on that mongomery bus... in fact, she was a tired woman before a gaggle of people who didn't agree with her (and who had been hanging and burning people her like her since the end of the civil war) and then a cop who wasn't exactly feeling her...
i think what defines us, more than anything, and our ethics and character, is what we hold to when no one is watching...
it's also not all about activism per se. it's also about freedom. if you allow your choices, your self-respect and dignity, your ethics to be circumscribed by a system you feel is unjust, you are locking yourself in your own personal prison.
freedom is recognizing that, powerful as that system may be, you have the power to resist - and not just publicly... even when the public is against you (such as in the case of the Hollywood Ten during McCarthyism)... even when you know you'll lose... that is freedom... and without freedom, we have nothing.
-emiliano zapata (who died on his feet... set up by his former comrades the mexican government... some say he knew he would die if he walked into that building, but he did it anyway because...)