Thread: 1,900 armed police officers and National Guardsmen gather in Cleveland

College at Odds With Students Over Plan to House Police for Cleveland Convention

By STEPHANIE SAUL JULY 14, 2016


Even though its campus sits nearly five miles from the arena hosting the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University on Monday announced a virtual shutdown of its operations next week for the convention’s duration, citing concerns that last week’s shootings in Dallas, Louisiana and Minnesota could provoke a “significant degree of conflict” in the city.

But students believe the decision to essentially close the campus relates to protests over another safety issue — the fear created by having 1,900 armed police officers and National Guardsmen housed in campus dormitories. They are part of an auxiliary force that will assist the Cleveland Police Department during the convention.

Students voiced their objections to the police presence during campus forums last week and in a Change.org petition, “Student Safety During Riot Police Occupation of Case Western Reserve University.”

“The primary concern is the safety of the campus community,” said Taru Taylor, a Case Western Reserve law student from Washington D.C. and a co-author of the petition. Mr. Taylor, citing police misconduct in Cleveland and across the nation, said he was concerned that by agreeing to house the police, the university was implicitly siding with them.

“Also, there’s a sense in which the university should be a scholarly environment, a sanctuary from the police state,” Mr. Taylor said.

The petition demanded that the police store their gear and weapons off campus; that they not enter university-owned buildings other than their assigned dorms; that they not use alcohol or mind-altering drugs; and that they abide by campus rules governing sexual harassment, anti-discrimination and the use of weapons.

Nearly 350 people had signed the petition as of Wednesday.

As one of them, Shannon Groll of Cleveland, put it: “As an alum of C.W.R.U., I relied on feeling safe in my identity on campus. I am scared and concerned for students of color, queer* and trans* students and all university community members at the mercy of an arbitrarily expanded police force without clear oversight or attachment to the community. Please, protect C.W.R.U. as a safe space for all bodies.”

And another, Keith Fitch, also of Cleveland, wrote:

“I am deeply troubled by the presence — even temporarily — of a militarized police force on the C.W.R.U. campus.”
GRAPHIC

In Preparation for Convention Protests, Half Of Cleveland’s Downtown Will Be Under Restrictions

How the host cities are regulating protests and security zones around the convention centers.


OPEN GRAPHIC
Chris Sheridan, a university vice president, said that black students, in particular, were worried about the police presence. “In light of the national climate, they had concerns about police officers on campus in close proximity to them with weapons,” she said.

But Ms. Sheridan said the decision to dramatically curtail campus operations was not a response to those protests.

Instead, she said, the shootings that occurred last Thursday in Dallas prompted the decision.
“However slim or remote the chance might be that a disturbed individual or individuals might pose a threat to our campus, we had to think carefully about ways to reduce that potential danger,” she said. “In discussing options, we concluded that the single best step we could take was to reduce the number of people on campus.”

In announcing the closings to students, faculty and staff, the university said,“Every school and unit has been asked to minimize the number of people on campus, as well as the number of its campus buildings that are open.”

Professors were asked to figure out ways to continue class off campus, possibly by offering instruction online or by meeting in another location, a move that suggested students would essentially be missing important instructional hours during a tightly packed summer schedule and prompted one anonymous professor to write an article in protest. The university has said its library will be shut down and its cafeteria will offer a limited menu.

One graduate student said she received an email on Tuesday night asking her not to report to campus unless it was necessary for her science experiments.

“I think the concern is that there are going to be 2,000 police officers staying in the dorms, and some people were a little bit concerned about that because they are going to be carrying their weapons,” said the graduate student, who asked not to be named for fear of university reprisals, adding: “They’re trying to look out for our safety.”

The private university is east of downtown Cleveland and 4.7 miles by car from Quicken Loans Arena, where the convention will take place Monday through Thursday. The school has an enrollment of 5,100 undergraduates and 6,200 graduate and professional students during the school year.

This summer, only about 280 students live on campus.

The university has also made arrangements to move students to dormitories away from those housing the law enforcement officers, or provide rebates to students who wish to move off campus during the convention, Ms. Sheridan said.

Ms. Sheridan said Case Western was one of five colleges in the Cleveland area that had agreed with the city to house out-of-town officers who are helping with security during the convention. She would not disclose the amount the university is being paid to house the officers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/us...onvention.html

Not sure what the right thing to do about beds is...the idea of adding 1900 police personal and national guardmen to handle Cleveland is probably going to make it a bit safer.