Protesters march to Stanford University president’s house to demand campus police reform

Dozens of protesters marched to the Stanford University president's house to demand various police reforms, including disarming officers

Dozens of protesters marched to the Stanford University president’s house to demand he disarm the campus police force and redirect funding toward non-police crime prevention and financial aid, among other reforms.

The protest, organized by a group called Abolish Stanford, started about 5 p.m. on the main quad on campus before marching to the home of University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Along the way, protesters chanted “Black lives matter” and the names of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Black Americans whose killings by police officers set off weeks of nationwide protests against racism and police violence.

Among the protesters on Friday was Nicel Mohamed-Hinds, who came out “because the police and prison system was designed to keep an artificial working class among Black people and that needs to be dismantled as soon as possible.”

Mohamed-Hinds, who is Black, graduated from Stanford last year.

“My life matters and I want to be able to walk, run and exist without worrying about safety,” she said.

The march was coupled with a petition from a coalition of Black student organizations that laid out protesters’ demands. They include disarming officers from the Stanford University Department of Public Safety and barring any non-Stanford police officers from having a permanent base on campus. It also calls for regular de-escalation training for law enforcement, students, staff and faculty, as well as the creation of a confidential police misconduct reporting system.

They also called for more investment in Black studies on campus, including more funding for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute and the creation of a separate African and African-American studies department.

At Tessier-Lavigne’s house, protesters chanted “MTL come out” and “disarm, defund or go to hell” before eventually taping a list of the demands to his door. Online, the petition has been signed by more than 1,900 people and 140 organizations, including The National Lawyers Guild at Stanford, the Stanford Black Student Union and Students for Environmental and Racial Justice.

Protesters eventually made it back to the main quad of campus before dispersing to chats of “we’ll be back.”