Tufts Students Organizing Protest In Response to Eric Garner Decision

Photo by Olga Khvan

A day after thousands of people took to the streets of Boston to protest a New York grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer for the death of an unarmed black man, who the department said was resisting arrest, students from Tufts University are planning their own march through the streets, which will begin at the school, and end in nearby Davis Square.

According to event details on the Facebook page “Indict America: Davis Square March,” more than 600 students have committed to attending the rally, a demonstration of solidarity for Eric Garner, a black New York man who died after he was placed in a chokehold by a police officer last July. The incident was caught on video, but a grand jury decided on Wednesday not to bring charges against the officer involved.

“As part of a larger national movement and expression of anger, pain, frustration, mourning, and healing, protesters will gather and disrupt ‘business as usual.’ We intend to disrupt the continuing of daily lives as the continuity of black lives are disrupted,” according to the organizers from Tufts University.

Students, who are encouraging people from all over to join them in their protests, will meet on campus at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, before they head off of school grounds and toward Davis Square. Demonstrators hosting the action asked participants to use the protests in Boston Wednesday night, which ended with just six arrests, according to police, as an example of how to rally appropriately.

The group will also be protesting the recent grand jury decision not to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed Michael Brown back in August. Brown was unarmed when Wilson claimed he charged at him, leading to the officer discharging multiple gunshots, killing the teenager.

“This is about honoring the memory of a black life lost, and disrupting the normalization of police brutality. Justice, as many of us know too well, is an unattainable myth for black people killed, with no regard for their dreams, their families, or their humanity,” the group said.