Black students are greatly affected by the actions of the Berkeley Police Department. In fact, last May 2014 we held a town hall to address Berkeley police brutality against some of our community members. Today however, we are here to speak on the misinformation the police are spreading in their report and articulate our our stance on parts of the report.
First and foremost, the police have never had a meeting with Cal BSU leadership when conducting this report, any remarks made counter to this are untrue. Second, we do not believe the police in any circumstance should use less lethal devices such as tear gas and rubber bullets and baton strikes in crowd control instances. We believe the police should not have access to any military grade weaponry at all. Lastly, we are opposed to increasing city resources toward the police department, and even more opposed to increased staffing of police officers.
Sincerely,
Cori McGowens, Chair 2015-2016
Myles Santifer, Chair 2014-2015
