[youtube XsPlzjKWH3k]<\/p>\n
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Guy King and\u00a0<\/strong>William Kelly Students at Jackson State University held a sit-in protest yesterday at the Heritage Dining Hall in support of Rahim Aponte, a sophomore criminal justice major from Atlanta, Ga.<\/p>\n Aponte was arrested by campus police on Sunday, March 29, when he refused to leave the dining hall which was closing. He was later charged with disorderly conduct by the City of Jackson Police Department and given a fine of $345.<\/p>\n \u201cI was in the cafeteria, I had just got out of practice and honestly I wasn\u2019t aware that the cafeteria closed at 7 p.m. on Sundays. I got my plate after 7, it was about 7:03 p.m. I got my food and when I sat down, the security came over there and told us that we had to leave. I had just got my food, I hadn\u2019t eaten all day so I said, \u2018I understand where y\u2019all are coming from, but I\u2019m going to finish my food, just let me finish my food,\u2019\u201d said Aponte.<\/p>\n Aponte, a member of the JSU track and field team, was with several of his teammates at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile eating in the caf\u00e9 two officers came by our table asking us to leave, because it was closing time. Rahim had just got his plate and understood that the caf\u00e9 was about to close, but he wanted to finish his meal. While trying to finish, the officers came to Rahim and took his plate. The food from the plate fell on Rahim\u2019s head, and the situation began to escalate,\u201d said William Carroll, also a track team member and a freshman civil engineering major from Mobile, Ala.\u00a0 \u201cFrom that point, the officers went too far and the situation could have been avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, an edited video (source unknown) was circulated among many students on the campus who were outraged at what they perceived to be excessive force from the officers. Word spread around the campus via text messages that a demonstration would be held in the dining hall on April 1.<\/p>\n One of the messages read: \u201cUpdate on sit-in: If asked to leave the cafeteria please respond with \u201cWe have a voice.\u201d\u201d Remember that this is a PEACEFUL demonstration. Refrain from the use of profanity.\u201d<\/p>\n Ariana Smith, a senior biology major from Oklahoma City, Okla. said this after seeing the video.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like it wasn\u2019t right. I feel like the police used excessive force without a reason to. I feel like they violated him and he never did anything to them. And I feel like they\u2019re not properly trained to handle situations like that because clearly if they were trained, it wouldn\u2019t have happened like that. A lot of stuff slides with the campus police and they get away with a lot of stuff and I feel like it\u2019s time for the students to take a stand,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n Lindsey Horton, Associate Vice President for JSU Public Safety, believes reasonable force was used in the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do have enough information to indicate that there was an incident with an individual arrested and several officers were involved. We\u2019ve determined that based on the videos that I saw, it did not rise to the level of excessive force. There was an individual arrested for disorderly conduct and during the course of that, we determined there was a lot of abusive language that\u2019s not conducive to the environment that you would expect on the campus of an institution that is charged with educating young people,\u201d said Horton.<\/p>\n Horton also explained the difference between reasonable and excessive force.<\/p>\n \u201cReasonable force is defined as the minimum amount of force needed to bring a situation under control or an individual under control.\u00a0 As it relates to excessive force on an individual, it\u2019s been said that the most visible element of any municipality is that of a uniformed police officer.\u00a0 If the officer determines that it\u2019s necessary to either direct or order the overall population in a room or one individual to do something in the interest of safety, then that person should comply,\u201d said Horton.<\/p>\n Imani Nelson, a senior biology major from Detroit, Mich. was one of the protest organizers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we found out about the incident that took place this Sunday that just passed, somebody showed us the video of the security guard kind of harassing one of our students who is a part of the track team.\u00a0 When we saw the video, it sparked our interest because there are times when security, to us, has not done their jobs effectively. When they go overboard and abuse their authority, that\u2019s an issue,\u201d said Nelson.<\/p>\n Yesterday at 7:30 p.m., hundreds of students gathered at the dining hall where the incident occurred for a sit-in. At 8 p.m., when the dining hall was supposed to close, students remained seated. Organizers of the event want the university to comply with the following demands: Nelson added: \u201cThis isn\u2019t the first time that something like this has happened, it\u2019s just the first time that this was caught on video\u2026 If it wasn\u2019t for our tuition, we wouldn\u2019t have these security guards; we wouldn\u2019t be able to pay these security guards. So the reason that we stood up is because we\u2019re tired of them being able to get away with stuff and sweep stuff under the rug like it\u2019s no big deal when we all are affected by it. Especially with that young man having to go to court.\u201d<\/p>\n During the protest, Aponte stated that he appreciated the support of his classmates.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what they (JSU Campus Police) need to take out of this protest is that it\u2019s a way that y\u2019all can do things and I feel like a lot of the security that we have working, they don\u2019t know the law,\u201d said Aponte.<\/p>\n At press time, Horton was holding a question and answer session with the students who wanted to voice their concerns. He assured the students that the incident was under investigation.<\/p>\n Sodexo, the food services provider at JSU and Auxiliary Enterprises were contacted for input on this story. As of 9 p.m., at Blue & White Flash print deadline, no comments were given and protesters were still in the dining hall. Visit thejsuflash.com for updates and video on this story.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [youtube XsPlzjKWH3k] Guy King and\u00a0William Kelly Staff Writers Students at Jackson State University held a sit-in protest yesterday at the Heritage Dining Hall in support…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_plus_post_options":"{}","editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5398"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>Staff Writers<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n– the fine be waived for Aponte
\n– the removal of the charge from Aponte\u2019s \u00a0record
\n– extended cafeteria closing times
\n– to-go-boxes for instances when students cannot sit and eat<\/p>\n