Students waking through the Quad yesterday at noon saw their classmates and professors sprawled on the ground, outlined in chalk like homicide victims at a crime scene.
The demonstration, called a “die-in,” was part of a nationwide movement across college campuses encouraging students to protest the shooting death of Michael Brown by former police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.
After hearing about the planned protests from a friend at Stanford University, mass communication junior Aryanna Prasad said she registered an event for the University at fergusonaction.com.
The die-in, like other events across the country, began at 12 p.m. — a minute before Brown was shot Aug. 9.
English professor Chris Barrett was among those lying down. She said Baton Rouge residents, like the protestors in Ferguson, are concerned about underlying racism in their police forces.
“I think everybody should care about this Ferguson issue,” Barrett said. “This is a country in need of a justice system. I’m here in support of justice.”
Wilson, Brown’s shooter, avoided indictment by a St. Louis grand jury Nov. 24, and will not face charges for the shooting. He resigned from the police department Saturday, Nov. 29.
Throughout the die-in, protesters filled the Quad with chants like “hands up, don’t shoot” and “no justice, no peace, no racist police.”
At the beginning of the demonstration, political science senior Leonela Guzman addressed the protesters. She said she spoke on behalf of the Latin American community.
“As a minority population, we have a stake in standing in solidarity with the black community,” Guzman said.
International studies junior Majdal Ismail compared the black community’s struggles to the plight of Palestinians before the crowd.
“We’re fighting the same fight,” Ismail said. “We’re struggling against the same injustice and it needs to be stopped.”
Cimajie Best, a philosophy senior, said not nearly enough people in Baton Rouge care about the Ferguson shooting.
Best is the president of the Univeristy’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s chapter.
“I love my school to death, but even being a black student at a PWI [predominantly white institution], you definitely feel some of the effects of racism,” Best said.