Group Continues To Call On Johns Hopkins To Permanently Shelve Plans For Police Force
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- As calls to defund police departments nationwide continue, demonstrators rallied in Baltimore Saturday to urge Johns Hopkins University to permanently shelve its plans to establish a police force.
In June, the university said it was putting its plans to create an armed police department on hold for two years. For those gathered Saturday, the pause isn't enough.
"This is us telling them, 'If you don't want to listen to us in the avenues you create, then we'll create our own avenues to let you know how we feel,'" Andrew Eneim with the Coalition Against Policing at Hopkins said.
Eneim argued communities are recognizing that policing isn't addressing the root causes of crime.
"What we need is community investment, not more community policing," he said.
RELATED COVERAGE:
- Group Calls For Permanent End To Discussions Creating Private Police Force At Johns Hopkins
- Johns Hopkins Puts Plans For Armed Campus Police On Hold Amid Nationwide Protests Over Police Brutality, Racial Injustice
- Maryland Law Authorizes Campus Police Force At Johns Hopkins
- Johns Hopkins Proposes To Build Its Own Police Force, Takes Request To General Assembly
A political organizer for the United Healthcare Workers East union said that investment would be better spent on providing essentials to healthcare workers.
"We want Johns Hopkins to get their priorities straight. Instead of wasting millions of dollars on a dangerous police force that will not address the route cause of the crime, we call on them today for more PPE, hazard pay and $15 an hour minimum wage at least," they said.
The university released a statement, saying in part that, "We plan to spend the next two years exploring more deeply and continuing to invest in alternative approaches to preventing or interrupting criminal violence so that we reduce to the greatest extent possible our reliance on sworn policing."
Officials also expressed a desire to work with the community.
Graduate student Calib Andrews said that desire hasn't resulted in action.
"They told us students that there would be a dialogue and there would be a process and that we would be able to meet and be open and have a discussion about what police on campus would mean," Andrews said, "but these are closed-door sessions with people that are appointed, not elected."
The coalition said it will continue marching and rallying until it's heard.
