Thread by @_jessicastovall

Last night, around 11 pm, I was taking a mind clearing walk around Stanford’s campus and witnessed a white police officer draw a gun on a young Black man. 1/11

I had my head down, hoodie up, headphones in, but I could still hear the piercing “put your hands up” through my audiobook. It was at a busy roundabout, and bikers & pedestrians were crossing right at the scene. The bikers exclaimed later that they were right in the line of fire.

Two women approached me, as I was paging our campus emergency services, desperate to find a way to deescalate. They said they were in the intersection when police had the man come out his car with his hands up. They were scared and wanted comfort. I had no comfort to give.

There was an audience for a while, cell phones out, but once the police officer returned his gun to his holster, people slowly dissipated. The only people were left were a man across the street sitting at the bus stop bench, looking bored as he seemed to wait for the bus, and me.

I talked to campus services on the phone. The Black man was released, and he started cussing out the officers, all of them white and looking dazed, especially the one who aimed his gun at him. I have never heard b**ch used so much and so appropriately.

He shouted that they knew they couldn’t arrest him for that. And after a while, the police officers shook their heads and got back in the vehicles. Before getting back into his own car, the man shouted into the night, “And this is the land of the free for a Black man.”

I tried to walk up to check on him, but he peeled away before I got close enough. The man at the bus stop got up, and put his phone back in his pocket. He gave me a knowing look. He wasn’t waiting for a bus. He was waiting to see if he had to bear witness.

I can’t help but think of all those with their cell phones out, waiting to see if they were to spectate the next public lynching. Would they walk away thinking that the man was guilty? Would they wonder if he made it safely home to his loved ones?

All this, right after the video release of Mr. Tyre Nichols’s murder. Black folk aren’t safe even on one of the most elite campuses in the world. And I share all this to say, yes. He was able to go home. But with what damage to him? To those of us who witnessed? I didn’t sleep.

This morning, we got an email from Stanford, with the subject title “Message of care and concern regarding Memphis” offering a “message of sadness, care, and hope.” But what hope can we have if police are publicly drawing guns on Black people on our own campus in the night?

I refuse to normalize this type of behavior of cops. This man was never arrested, and yet, he had a gun drawn on him. Police interactions like this cannot go quietly into that dark night. This is the work, and we got work to do. #AbolishThePolice

Thank you for the many words of support. As a result of this social media response, the Stanford Department of Public Safety has issued a statement & the incident is under review. My big takeaway is the police response was absolutely inappropriate. news.stanford.edu/report/2023/01…