Students, protestors and criminal justice professionals gathered in front of the Cal State Long Beach free speech area to discuss police reform and the steps students can take to create a better dialogue between minority groups and law enforcement.
The protest was the result of a student-driven petition regarding police brutality, racial profiling and police reform that was ignored multiple times by the White House.
In addition to student speakers, criminal justice lawyer Thomas Mesereau discussed what can be done when a petition is unattended by the White House so that students can be taken seriously.
Mesereau, a Harvard graduate, is famous for working on high profile cases defending celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Robert Blake and Suge Knight.
“When there was no response from the White House, a meeting was held with local community leaders to determine why the White House had not responded,” said Andre Andrews, a criminal justice graduate and one of the protest coordinators.
Andrews contacted Mesereau multiple times for advice and guidance on the matter.
“He showed up at my building lobby and eventually on my office floor,” Mesereau said. “I decided to talk to talk to him and I quickly realized how sincere he was.”
A petition drive was held at Cal State Long Beach in July 2014 for an initiative conducted by an unnamed CSULB graduate student.
The student worked with other professors and students on campus to collect a number of objective interviews regarding the best ways to bring police reform.
“Students then went from campus to campus collecting signatures for the petition which requested nothing more than a short interview between President Obama and a small group of students and faculty from this campus,” Andrews said.
When an online petition is started, the public has 30 days to gather 100,000 signatures in order to be reviewed by the White House.
The online petition has not garnered a response from the White House in over a year. The students said they felt they were wrongly denied after completing the White House’s criteria.
To further help their cause, the group of students then got letters of support from Chicano/Latino Studies chairs and directors from different Cal State University campuses regarding police misconduct they have experienced.
One of the more noteworthy testimonials came from a professor from Sacramento State University.
“The professor, who is of Latino descent, was being chased by an officer with a gun pointed at him near the campus and was later told they were looking for a white male,” Andrews said.
According to Andrews, The Sacramento State professor was on his usual morning jog when he realized he was being chased by a police officer. Without any explanations, the police officer forced the professor on his knees and held him at gunpoint.
“The officer then claimed that they were looking for a suspicious white man,” Andrews said. “However, the professor in question was clearly hispanic.”
As students listened to the account, they shook their heads in disbelief.
Other CSULB students shared their experience with racial profiling by Long Beach Police Department officers.
“One time my friends and I went to a pizza shop down the street and while we were just chilling, waiting for the pizzas, like three cops come up and told us to go away.” Civil engineering major Isaiah Phillips said.
“He told us we couldn’t be there. We were all black and there was one Mexican.”
Chris Oliva, a psychology major of Latinx descent, said that he believes police brutality is becoming more prominent.
“I feel like it’s always been a problem, but they just haven’t reported it as much,” Oliva said. “But it’s gotten to such an extent that now they have to report it.”
Mesereau said that students must approach the issue of police reform respectfully, especially with respect to “honorable, courages… decent and professional police officers.”
“The ones we condemn are the criminals with badges and the ones that abuse their authority to use deadly force,” said Mesereau.
Mesereau expressed that just because police officers take advantage of their authority, it doesn’t mean that all police officers are a part of the police brutality epidemic.
“I believe this is a very serious problem that cannot be allowed to lie dormant,” he said. “Clearly they’re not taking ‘no’ for an answer and they have to persist on getting a meeting at the White House.”