<p>Student</a> arrested inReg - The Chicago Maroon</p>
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Student arrested in Reg</p>
<p>By Asher Klein
Published: February 26th, 2010 Share Share Share</p>
<p>University police arrested a student in the A-Level Wednesday night for criminal trespass and resisting arrest.</p>
<p>While UCPD claimed the student was charged because he refused to show officers his identification or leave the library for unruly behavior, witnesses deny that police asked the student for ID or that the student was causing a disturbance. They also said the arresting officer was inappropriately aggressive.</p>
<p>Witnesses identified the suspect as fourth-year Mauriece Dawson, who was taken into custody at around 8:30 p.m. and spent the night in jail. UCPD officers were responding to a complaint by a Regenstein clerk that said Dawson and his friends were making too much noise.</p>
<p>“The policeman put the young man in a choke hold and wrestled him to the ground. The young man did not resist,” according to an account written by first-year Ariel McCleese and signed by more than 10 other students who were in the A-Level at the time. . . .<a href="More%20at%20link">/QUOTE</a></p>
<p>Admins</a> to discuss A-level arresttoday - The Chicago Maroon</p>
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Admins to discuss A-level arrest today</p>
<p>By Michael Lipkin
Published: March 2nd, 2010</p>
<p>Days after a student was arrested on the A-level with what witnesses say was unnecessary force, administrators will hear student concerns tonight at a campus forum.</p>
<p>The meeting in the McCormick Tribune Lounge will include UCPD Chief Marlon Lynch and a representative from the library department. </p>
<p>Fourth-year Mauriece Dawson was arrested and charged with criminal trespass and resisting arrest after a Regenstein clerk called the UCPD to report a group of students causing a disturbance. Witnesses said that Dawson, who was laughing loudly with friends on the A-Level, was later asked by a UCPD officer to leave. After Dawson repeatedly asked why he had to leave, the officer placed him in a choke hold, pinned him to the floor, and placed him under arrest. </p>
<p>UCPD officials later said Dawson was arrested because he did not present his ID card when asked, but no witnesses heard the officer ask for identification.</p>
<p>Vice President for Campus Life Kim Goff-Crews said the meeting will address students’ questions about library protocol and police procedures. “The whole community can have a conversation around not just what happened, but...about the kind of relationship we want to have between students and the police, library personnel, etc., to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Goff-Crews said.</p>
<p>Dawson said he would attend the meeting, but declined to comment further.</p>
<p>According to Goff-Crews, the Library Department and UCPD are conducting internal reviews of the incident, and a complaint has been filed with the UCPD over the arrest<a href="More%20at%20link">/QUOTE</a></p>
<p>Packed</a> forum presses admins on Regarrest - The Chicago Maroon</p>
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Packed forum presses admins on Reg arrest</p>
<p>By Asher Klein
Published: March 3rd, 2010</p>
<p>Students and community members, frustrated by what they perceived as years of racial profiling by the UCPD, confronted University, Library and UCPD administrators Tuesday, in a charged open forum in the Reynolds Club.</p>
<p>Over 200 people attended the forum, which was convened to address a powerful student response to last Wednesday's arrest of fourth-year Mauriece Dawson in the A-level, which many at the meeting said is part of a larger culture of racial profiling on the part of UCPD.</p>
<p>A Regenstein clerk called the UCPD Wednesday night to report an "unruly" group of students, including Dawson, although witnesses said they were not unusually loud for the popular study area. When told to leave the building by a UCPD officer, Dawson repeatedly asked questioned why he had to leave; the officer placed him in a choke hold, pinned him to the floor, and placed him under arrest. Witnesses said Dawson, who is black, was never asked for identification.</p>
<p>Administrators and attendees stressed the need for a quick investigation into police and library staff conduct, but argued on how reforms could dispel a simmering feeling of mistrust.</p>
<p>The forum was sponsored by the Office of Campus and Student Life, and Student Government (SG).</p>
<p>Administrators had few specific answers to attendees' questions, citing the ongoing investigations—three are underway, within Library, UCPD and within Campus and Student Life—or about the specifics of Dawson's case. . . .</p>
<p>Concerns over this and other potential cases of racial profiling dominated proceedings. Around 50 attendees raised their hands when Dawson asked how many felt they, or someone they knew, had been racially-profiled by UCPD officers. More than half were black. "This is not an isolated incident," Dawson said.</p>
<p>Some in the audience told stories, often in great detail, in which they felt that they or some one they know had been profiled by UCPD. A graduate student interrupted one administrator to say the UCPD has engaged in racial-profiling since at least 2003, when he said the University accosted a black SSA graduate student when he met a white, female friend on campus at 3 a.m.; the first thing he said officers did was ask the woman if she was okay, suggesting they viewed the student as a threat.</p>
<p>Wanting to "cut the crap," he received applause when he yelled: "I am sick and tired of black students being racially profiled at the University of Chicago by their own police department."</p>
<p>Two members of the audience, both black, recounted recent incidents when they were stopped by UCPD officers outside of the Reg; both said they were doing nothing suspicious. One of those students said one police officer involved didn't cooperate when he asked for his badge number, and Lynch confirmed an investigation is underway in that case. . . .</p>
<p>Attendees pointed to other times when there no serious action was taken in previous instances of Library policies being broken, including when "white frat boys" drank beer and ate pizza in the A-Level.
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<p>I hope that any discussion of this doesn't degenerate into a lot of people claiming that racial profiling doesn't exist, that the kid "must have" done something wrong to provoke a choke hold, etc., etc., like it did in a certain thread about a certain professor in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I equally hope that nobody insists that the campus police officer "must have" acted out of racism.</p>
<p>I wasn't there, and neither was my son, and I suspect that nobody else here was a witness, either. </p>
<p>So we'll see what happens with the investigation.</p>
<p>At least, so far, no sign of students taking over administrative offices, occupying buildings, issuing lists of non-negotiable demands, etc., etc. Just people discussing their concerns, as I think it should be (and always thought so, as far back as the Columbia demonstrations in 1969 -- I think -- when I was 14.)</p>
<p>My son did tell me (I visited him this past weekend to celebrate my birthday, and he knew all about the incident) that from talking to people it does seem that every single one of the students who were witnesses insists that the kid was not asked for his ID, and did not do anything to justify a chokehold. And that the A-Level of the Library, where this happened, is well-known as a place where people hang out (especially in the evening), and there's never been an understanding that it's any kind of "quiet area."</p>