Originally Presented on: 12/10/2020

Type of Action: Recommendation

Status/Result: New Business

1 S.A. Resolution #30

2
3 Calling For the Disarmament of the Cornell University Police Department
4

5 Sponsors: Uche Chukwukere ‘21, Shaun Roberts ‘23, Tyler Brown ‘22, Angeliki Cintron ‘22, Valeria Valencia
6 ‘23, Kat Restrepo ‘21, Cat Huang ‘21, Selam Woldai ‘23, Lucy Contreras ‘21, Sherell Farmer ‘22, Estefania
7 Perez ‘21, Moriah Adeghe ‘21, Tomás Reuning ‘21, Meshach Boyce ’21, Lassan Bagayoko ’22 , Nnaemeka
8 Nwankpa ’22, Mardiya Shardow ’23 , Jenniviv Bansah ’23, Yana Kalmyka ‘20
9
10 ABSTRACT: This resolution is calling for the disarmament of the Cornell University Police department.
11

12 Whereas, The policing system in America is rooted in racism, slavery, corruption, and violence,
13 particularly against Black and Brown people, which has been commonplace since the institution’s
14 inception;
15
16 Whereas, American law enforcement as we know began as slave patrols and union busters where
17 squadrons of white volunteers that enforced laws related to slavery by capturing and returning
18 enslaved people who had escaped, crushing uprisings, and punishing enslaved workers believed to
19 have violated plantation rules;
20
21 Whereas, Police have upheld and enforced racist laws since slavery, the black codes, and the Jim
22 Crow laws;

23 Whereas, Ugly Laws were enacted as early forms of policing that primarily targeted low income and
24 people with disabilities;
25
26 Whereas, Ugly Laws essentially “prohibited people with noticeable physical disabilities from visiting
27 public spaces;”
28
29 Whereas, Ugly laws disproportionately targeted folks at the intersection of race, income, and
30 disability status;
31
32 Whereas, After the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery took on the form of
33 prison labor camps, several of which were located on the grounds of former plantations;
34
35 Whereas, The prisoners in these camps were not safeguarded by the Fourteenth
36 Amendment thus denying any type of protection from the harsh, unpaid labor that
37 characterized these prisons;
38
39 Whereas, Policing was henceforth racially motivated, preying on almost exclusively young
40 Black men, causing these prisons to be filled based on the racist predispositions that
41 remained during the Reconstruction era;
42
43 Whereas, This exploited workforce soon after were subjected to “convict leasing” which
44 allowed for plantation owners to buy back previously enslaved peoples for a small fee that
45 went to the state;
46
47 Whereas, To this day, the exploitation of prison labor is continually perpetuated,
48 predominantly targeting Black neighborhoods to sustain these racist systems which
49 disproportionately police and incriminate Black individuals;
50
51 Whereas, Police in the Jim Crow Era were integral in the mandatance of separate public spaces for
52 blacks and whites, such as schools, libraries, water fountains and restaurants. Police routinely
53 subjected Black Americans in violation of such laws, or who dared to deviate from social norms, to
54 intense beatings and other forms of police brutality;

55 Whereas, Police actively subjected peaceful protesters during the Civil Rights era to violence
56 through acts involving use of police dogs, fire hydrants, batons and other means of physical
57 violence, with the goal of suppressing protest and maintaining the existing racial status quo;

58 Whereas, Policing on college campuses started as a way to break up student movements before they
59 grew large enough to effectively pressure the administration to win change;

60 Whereas, Recent incidents suggest that policing in higher education continues to utilize the violent
61 tactics used to suppress the Vietnam War and civil-rights activists;

62 Whereas, Recent incidents include campus police pepper-spraying a row of passive, seated students,
63 unlawfully detaining students, murdering innocent unarmed people (including one during a period of
64 distress due to mental illness);

65 Whereas, The need for weapons has increasingly come into question as a result of the violent crime
66 rate on college campuses decreasing 27 percent from 2004-2010. Despite such a decrease, more
67 sworn officers with firearms (94 percent), chemical or pepper spray (94 percent), taser-like devices
68 (40 percent), and in some cases military-grade equipment, have been simultaneously added to college
69 campuses;

70 Whereas, The most common crimes at peer institutions, such as Harvard University, appear to be
71 mostly (95%) property related as opposed to those crimes requiring campus police to be heavily
72 armed. Further, at schools like SUNY Cortland, school administrators condemn an armed police
73 force for creating an unnecessary aura of power and domination on campus, as opposed to a role of
74 helpers, protectors and problem solvers;

75 Whereas, Unarmed police officers are similarly effective as armed police officers in deterring crime
76 through patrol (American Society of Criminology’s Director of the Division of Experimental
77 Criminology);
78
 79 Whereas, Unarmed uniformed private security guards have a crime deterrent effect through patrol
80 (ASA DEC);
81
82 Whereas, An alternative solution to policing can take the form of targeted community investments,
83 such as investing into more CAPS staff and making mental health services more accessible to the
84 campus community;
85
86 Whereas, The police should not respond to calls concerning mental health crises or medical
87 emergencies, which should fall under the jurisdiction of EMTs and social workers, who are more
88 equipped and trained to handle these situations;
89
90 Whereas, Decriminalization helps reduce crime. CUPD should not respond to situations
91 concerning alcohol and drug abuse, including patrolling parties or being called to dorms when RAs
92 smell marijuana. Rather, alcohol and drug use should be decriminalized so that medical professionals
93 will instead respond appropriately when students require support related to substance abuse;
94
95 Whereas, Such alternatives target and prevent the roots of crime rather than what police forces do,
96 which is merely reacting to and reproducing crime;
97
98 Whereas, Portland State University disarmed their campus police this fall. Their officers will now
99 conduct patrols without firearms, but are still permitted “non-lethal” tasers. The university has a
100 “Reimagine Campus Safety Steering Committee” dedicated to providing recommendations on
101 campus safety without armed officers .This policy change was in response to the fatal shooting of
102 Jason Washington on the PSU campus. Cornell should not wait for a tragedy to disarm CUPD;
103
104 Whereas, The Massachusetts College of Art and Design has an unarmed police force, and the
105 Board of Trustees voted to keep their campus police unarmed in 2019. The MassArt campus police
106 tried to regain their firearms, but a petition of over 550 students and community members urged the
107 Board of Trustees to keep campus police officers unarmed;
108
109 Whereas, Students at the University of Chicago founded the #CareNotCops campaign in 2018
110 with the intention of disarming, defunding, and disbanding the UCPD. The campaign started after
111 the UCPD shot a student on campus who was experiencing a mental health episode; once again,
112 Cornell should not wait for a tragedy to occur to make change. When the University of Chicago
113 refused to engage with students, activists occupied UCPD headquarters for 20 hours. Students are
114 still actively petitioning the University of Chicago to disarm, defund, and disband the UCPD;
115
116 Whereas, Students at Harvard University are also calling to disband their university police force.
117 Their demands were reinvigorated over the summer when HUPD officers were spotted in Boston
118 monitoring a demonstration after George Floyd’s death. This resulted in the University releasing an
119 official statement announcing an independent review of HUPD;
120
121 Whereas, The Black Students for Disarmament at Yale organization sent an open letter to the Yale
122 administration asking for the disarmament and dismantling of the Yale Police department.
123
124 Whereas, This letter came after a Yale police officer fired 16 shots into the car of Stephanie
125 Washington and Paul Witherspoon- two unarmed, Black youth- in 2019. Cornell should not wait for
126 gun violence to occur to disarm the CUPD;
127
128 Whereas, Prior to 2005, the SUNY Cortland campus, as well as two other SUNY campuses, did not
129 permit their University Police to carry lethal weapons;
130
131 Whereas, The term lethal weapons does not refer exclusively to guns as any weapon such as taser or
132 baton can be used with deadly force.
133
134 Whereas, Cornell should look to create more community structures that do not rely upon the
135 armament of CUPD; Alternative mechanisms are put in place in the transition towards disarming
136 the Cornell University Police Department such as, but not limited to:
137
138 Whereas, A mental health emergency response team and an alternative blue-light system that would
139 have no affiliation with CUPD that would provide paid jobs filled by unarmed Ithaca community
140 members.
141
142 Whereas, To address issues concerning drug and alcohol related medical emergencies, the Cornell
143 University Emergency Medical Response team should not call CUPD if a student is underaged;
144
145 Whereas, In the event of an active threat on campus, CUPD should not have weapons because
146 there exist non-armed responses to perpetrators of gun violence;
147
148 Whereas, The quick nature of gun violence does not permit for police officers to prevent violence
149 and or harm incurring on other students since mass shootings often stop at the volition of the
150 perpetrator and not because of armed intervention;
151
152 Whereas, More weight should be given to the reality and consequences of police brutality and not
153 the hypothetical mass shooting scenarios that rarely occur in the first place.
154
155 Whereas, The Student Assembly hosted a Town Hall on 12/08/2020, which was attended by over
156 200 students, to hear from constituents about campus police disarmament,
157
158 Whereas, The express purpose of the Town Hall was to create “space for community members to
159 share their thoughts with SA members on the topic of CUPD disarmament,” and the community’s
160 input added new information to the SA’s understanding of the interests of the student body,
161
162 Whereas, The student body displayed an overwhelming amount of support for full CUPD
163 disarmament at the Town Hall, with 51 unique attendees speaking in favor of the resolution and
164 only 7 unique attendees speaking against,
165
166 Whereas, According to the Student Assembly Charter, Article IV: Membership, Section 8B, it is the
167 duty of student-elected representatives to “[gather] information about their particular college,”
168 “[represent] their respective constituencies,” and “[vote] according to their needs and desires,”
169 and in this case the student body has overwhelmingly voiced their need and desire for CUPD
170 disarmament at the Town Hall,
171
172 Be it therefore resolved, Supporting data and trends overwhelmingly show that police on college
173 campuses should not have access to lethal weapons as it is unnecessary and proves to increase the
174 likelihood of danger/use of lethal force rather than decrease;
175
176 Be it therefore resolved, The SA’s 12/08/2020 Town Hall on CUPD Disarmament provided
177 voting members of the Student Assembly with new information from constituents, namely a strong
178 showing of support for Resolution 11, which justifies the reconsideration of campus disarmament;
179

180 Be it therefore resolved, Supporting data and trends overwhelmingly show that police on college
181 campuses should not have access to lethal weapons as it is unnecessary and proves to increase the
182 likelihood of danger/use of lethal force rather than decrease;
183
184 Be it finally resolved, Cornell University must take action by immediately disarming the Cornell
185 University Police department of all lethal weapons.
186

187 Respectfully submitted,

188
189 Uche Chukwukere ‘21
190 Vice President for Finance, Student Assembly
191
192 Lucy Contreras ‘21
193 First Generation Students Liaison At-Large, Student Assembly
194
195 Selam Woldai ‘23
196 Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, Student Assembly
197
198 Kat Restrepo ‘21
199 Director of Finance, Office of the Student Advocate
200
201 Amber Haywood ‘21
202 Co-Founder, DoBetterCornell
203
204 Estefania Perez ‘21
205 Arts and Sciences Representative, Student Assembly
206
207 Tomas Reuning ‘21
208 LGBTQIA+ Representative At-Large, Student Assembly
209
210 Meshach Boyce ‘21
211 MGFC Ex-Officio Representative, Student Assembly
212
213 Sherell Farmer ‘22
214 Co-Founder, CornellStudents4BlackLives (C4BL)
215
216 Valeria Valencia ‘23
217 Minority Students Liaison At-Large, Student Assembly
218
219 Tyler Brown ‘22
220 Co-Founder, Cornell Abolitionist Revolutionary Society
221
222 Angeliki Cintron ‘22
223 Co-Founder, Cornell Abolitionist Revolutionary Society
224
225 Shaun Roberts ‘23
226 Cornell Abolitionist Revolutionary Society
227
228 Cat Huang ‘21
229 President, Student Assembly
230
231 Moriah Adeghe ‘21
232 Co-Director of Elections, Student Assembly
233
234 Lassan Bagayoko ‘22
235 Co-Chair, Black Students United
236
237 Nnaemeka Nwankpa ’22
238 Co-Chair, Black Students United
239
240 Mardiya Shardow ‘23
241 Dyson School of Business Representative, Student Assembly
242
243 Jenniviv Bansah ‘23
244 Hotel Students Representative at Cornell
245
246 Black Students United
247
248 Native American and Indigenous Students at Cornell
249
250 South Asian Council
251
252 Cornell Democrats
253
254 Climate Justice Cornell
255
256 Cornell Abolitionist Revolutionary Society
257
258 Multicultural Greek and Fraternal Council
259
260 Cornell Students 4 Black Lives
261
262 DoBetterCornell
263
264 People’s Organizing Collective
265
266 La Asociacion Latina
267
268 Cornell Progressives
269
270 Cornell DREAM Team
271
272 Men of Color Council
273
274 Cornell Asian and Pacific Islander Student Union
275
276 Arab Students Association at Cornell
277
278 Gender Justice Advocacy Coalition
279
280

281 (Reviewed by: Diversity and Inclusion Committee, XX-XX-XXXX, 12/10/2020)