Tensions ran high last night in the packed McCormick Tribune Lounge, where members of the University of Chicago community gathered to discuss the UCPD’s arrest of a black male student in the Regenstein Library last Wednesday. Dean of Students Kim Goff-Crews, UCPD chief Marlon Lynch, and Assistant Director of the Library Jim Vaughan were there to mediate the discussion and answer questions. But as more than one student pointed out, they said very little, other than that the situation would be dealt with appropriately. The ongoing investigation—involving interviews of witnesses of the arrest—prevented them from disclosing the details of the case.

Some audience members asked about library and UCPD policy, and when it’s necessary to show ID (answer: on University property, almost always). Witnesses of the arrest described it as disturbingly violent, and at least two related their frustration with the lack of a quick response from library and university administrators. The main theme and sentiment of the discussion was summed up by one especially skilled orator, who said, to loud applause, “As someone who’s been affiliated with the University as a grad student for more than eight years, I’m sick and tired of black students being racially profiled by our own police department!” Several African-American students told their own stories of being harassed by the UCPD, and dozens of hands shot up in response to a query of who in the audience had been racially profiled.

The discussion ended without much closure, but Goff-Crews encouraged students to organize an executive committee to continue the conversation, with the possibility of more open meetings in the coming weeks.

You can read more about the meeting in a Maroon article.

Last Friday’s Maroon reported that on the evening of February 26, a fourth-year University of Chicago student, Mauriece Dawson, was arrested in the Regenstein Library for criminal trespass and resisting arrest. University of Chicago Police Department officers were responding to a complaint by a library clerk that Dawson and a friend were being disruptive, and claim that he refused to show ID or leave the library when asked. However, witnesses say the officers never requested ID and used undue force to arrest Dawson, who is African-American. There will be an open meeting about the incident this Tuesday from 6 to 8pm in the McCormick Tribune Lounge at the Reynolds Club, 5706 S. University Ave., with representatives from Campus and Student Life, the College, the UCPD, and the Regenstein Library.