Press Release from Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front
YLFPNW@Protonmail.com
Solidarity with Occupy PSU and against campus police.
For immediate release:
On September 24th, 2018, a march organized by the Portland State University Student Union took place in memory of Jason Washington, who was shot and killed on campus on June 29th of this year by PSU police officers while trying to break up a fight. The march re-ignited the call to #DisarmPSU, a movement started over 4 years ago, before Portland State Security was deputized and before any armed police force existed on campus. This movement started because students anticipated that the implementation of a militarized campus security force would result in a campus environment that was more dangerous for students and for the Portland community at large, Black and Brown folks in particular. Sadly, Jason’s death at the hands of PSU officers exists as a confirmation of this anticipation, and follows a long line of similar instances on college campuses all over the so-called United States. Scout Schultz was killed by a Georgia Tech police officer on campus almost a year ago to the day while experiencing a mental health crisis. Samuel DuBose was killed by a University of Cincinnati officer during a routine traffic stop in 2015. In 2010, Everette Howard was killed after being shot with a taser that was deployed by yet another U of C officer while trying to break up a fight in a campus dormitory, a circumstance all too familiar in the case of Jason’s death. Countless other students have died at the hands of campus police officers, and today, students of color in particular are overwhelmingly more likely to be killed by campus police officers than white students.
Continue reading “Call to Action: Solidarity with Occupy PSU!”
