7 Outrageus Examples of Police Profiling And Abuse on College Campuses

University of Virginia Honors Student Slammed Into Pavement

Thanks to social media, there was no way law enforcement was going to keep the brutal attack of Martese Johnson undercover. Images of the honor student’s face covered in blood quickly circulated the Web over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend. It was later revealed that it took 10 stitches to close the gash across Johnson’s head that he received after an Alcoholic Beverage Control agent slammed him into the pavement despite several eyewitness reports that the student wasn’t causing any trouble. The entire attack happened just a few steps away from the University of Virginia campus and caused school, state and local officials to call for an investigation into the incident.

Delaware State Professor Arrested, Abused for Leading a Protest

Dr. Jahi Issa was forced to spend roughly three years in jail for simply leading a student protest at Delaware State. He was finally exonerated back in January after a judge agreed he was exercising his First Amendment rights. In addition to being arrested for simply leading a protest, Issa was roughed up by police and had to be taken to the hospital.

Charles Blow’s Son Accosted at Yale

Back in January, journalist Charles Blow shocked readers when he shared the story of his own son being held at gunpoint by campus police at Yale. His son was a third-year student at the university but was assumed to be a burglary suspect even after he provided the officer with his school ID. Blow’s son said the officer drew his gun on him before he even began questioning him about the alleged crime that took place in the area.

Ohio State University Student Brutally Attacked by Police

In 2012, people who came across the gruesome photos of Joseph Hines after his encounter with Columbus, Ohio, police were shocked for two reasons. For one, Hines’ story wasn’t widely covered. Secondly, the injuries seen in the photo were the result of a violent encounter with police. The university was already in the midst of a string of racially charged incidents on campus when Hines was beaten and arrested by police across the street from the school’s Student Union. He was left with severe nerve damage in one hand, a concussion, several lacerations and cuts on his face and body, and one of his eyes was swollen shut.

ASU Professor Slammed to the Ground for Jaywalking 

It was back in May of 2014 that one officer’s dashboard camera captured him slamming Ersula Ore, an assistant professor at Arizona State University, to the ground for jaywalking on the school’s campus. The officer resigned after an internal investigation found he was wrong for using so much force against the female professor.

LAPD’s Militarized Response to USC Party

In 2013, many students took to social media to document what they called a “racially charged” reaction by the Los Angeles Police Department to noise complaints at the University of Southern California. The party, which consisted of mostly Black students, received a much more severe response than the other parties that were shut down on the school’s campus. Police blocked off entire streets, formed human barricades and aggressively handled students as they attempted to leave the party, a report published by Annenberg’s Neon Tommy revealed. Reports revealed that one student suffered lacerations to his face after being tackled by six officers for “standing too closely to a police vehicle.” Other students received cuts to their arms, shoulders and wrists. Another young lady received lacerations to her chest after an officer allegedly assaulted her.

Vassar Professor Repeatedly Profiled by Police

Kiese Laymon, an associate professor of English at Vassar College, penned an essay in 2014 detailing his many encounters with campus police despite the fact that he was a professor. Laymon revealed that he was constantly being pulled over for one mysterious reason after the next and was only allowed to go on about his day after his ID revealed he was a Vassar professor. The white officer chastised him, according to the essay, and warned that his entire educational career would be ruined if he kept “rolling through stop signs”— something Laymon insists never even happened.