Florida campus shooting protest

GAINESVILLE, Fla.--University of Florida (UF) students and members of the community converged on the campus on March 16 to protest the shooting of Kofi Adu-Brempong by the University Police Department (UPD).

About 300 people rallied at Turlington Plaza and then marched down University Avenue, holding signs and chanting slogans. The march ended at Emerson Hall, where the Board of Trustees was holding a meeting. Participants rallied outside while they waited for organizers inside to let everyone in. At that point, a great surge of protesters stormed the lobby and demanded to be heard by the Board of Trustees.

The demonstration was organized by the Coalition for Justice Against Police Brutality, which brought together the International Socialist Organization, UF Students For a Democratic Society, Alachua Citizens Against Brutality, the NAACP, Graduate Assistants United, the Student Labor Action Project, the African Student Union, the Democratic Black Caucus and Amnesty International. Kofi's family, friends and neighbors of Kofi were also present to speak, and helped organize the day's actions.

Kofi, an international graduate student from Ghana, was shot through the jaw with an assault rifle by UPD officer Keith Smith on the evening of March 2 at his home in the Cory Village apartment complex in Gainesville. Many of the details of the shooting are still unclear. Police reports to local media have repeatedly proven incorrect as further information from family and eyewitnesses comes to light.

According to a neighbor who witnessed the shooting, Kofi was visited the day before by police investigating reports that he was suffering anxiety and delusions related to questions about his student visa. At this point, the neighbor said, police determined he was not a threat to himself or others.

Nevertheless, the next day, UPD officers--supposedly responding to a 911 call--stormed the apartment and opened fire, first with a Taser, then a beanbag gun, then an assault rifle. The first shot from the assault rifle missed, and the second struck Kofi in the face.

Police initially claimed that Kofi attacked them with a knife and a pipe. Subsequent reports stated that Kofi was not wielding a knife, but that it was visible in his kitchen. The "pipe" referred to was presumably the cane Kofi needs to walk, due to a childhood case of polio.

Kofi was left in critical condition--and facing charges of one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and five charges of resisting arrest.

One of the Coalition's central demands is that all charges against Kofi be dropped. Another is that Officer Smith be suspended immediately without pay, and terminated pending an independent investigation. Activists are also calling for the creation of a Civilian Police Review Board to monitor the UPD actions and greater resources from the University for students and employees with mental issues.

DURING THE rally in the lobby of Emerson Hall, demonstrators spoke through a bullhorn, among them Kofi's neighbors and family, and representatives of local organizations and coalitions.

At one point, an obviously nervous Trustee, Daniel Ponce, came down to speak to demonstrators, but claimed that there was nothing he could do at the moment. The crowd immediately shouted that this was unacceptable. Shortly after Ponce retreated back upstairs, the board secretly exited out the back of the building.

Since the Board of Trustees was no longer present, protesters decided to march on the office of University President Bernie Machen. Machen was on a plane to Tampa, so petitions and demands had to be delivered to his staff. A university official agreed to a meeting with the Coalition this week.

One protester, Tim, a friend of Kofi's, said he had run into Kofi a few days prior to the shooting, and that Kofi seemed "fine, mild-mannered and soft spoken as always." He said he was glad so many people come out for the protest to express their frustration and sadness over what happened.

UF Lauren Leib was outraged over the idea that police have so much power and wants more accountability from the UPD. One of the issues most important to Sheila Payne, a Gainesville resident who works with the Student/Farmworker Alliance, was the misrepresentation in the press of Kofi as a delusional and potentially dangerous person.

The protest and rally is just the beginning of the struggle to win justice for Kofi and more protection for students and Gainesville citizens from police brutality. Coalition meetings are being held at the Cory Village apartment complex so that family, neighbors and concerned residents of Gainesville at large can continue the fight.