Chants of calling for justice echoed off of E.S. Bird Library and drew applause from bystanders as more than 60 people marched on the Syracuse University campus Saturday afternoon to protest recurring incidents of police brutality against minority groups.

The “Am I Next?” march, which was organized by the Sigma Lambda Upsilon sorority, the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and SU’s chapter of the NAACP, was dominated by SU students with a few faculty and community members participating.

The participants gathered in front of Hendricks Chapel and then headed toward the University Place promenade, chanting phrases such as “No justice, no peace” and “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”

Then the crowd took the right turn to walk on University Place and turned right to circle back to Hendricks.

During the protest, the participants held handmade signs saying “Hands up, don’t shoot!” and raised both of their hands while that particular phrase was shouted. It was another expression of frustration following police shootings of black men in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Charlotte, North Carolina last week.

The 30-minute march concluded with the participants standing on the stairs of Hendricks with their fists raised high in the air. Then the group came together for prayer.

Nikolas Rivera, one of the participants in the march and a junior illustration major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts said after the march, he felt very emotional.

“I feel very empowered by this because I believe this is something that people have tried not to focus on … and seeing this now I want to everybody to hear our voices and to know that we are not going to stand for this anymore,” Rivera said.

Being a black person himself, Rivera said recent events of police shootings directly have an impact on him and his family, and people not confronting the issue hurts him inside.

“Being able to scream my lungs out, being able to express my emotions right now really pushes me to actually to want to be able to tell everybody this is something that we are going to deal with right now,” he said. “This is something that I don’t want to be having to know that I have to look after behind my back every time and always just be afraid that this guy who has a certain amount of authority, like, anytime would pull a trigger and kill me and everybody going back to their normal lives.”

Devaughn Smith, a senior double majoring English and textual studies and psychology, said he decided to join the march because people being killed and dying cannot be justified.

Jackeline Guillen, one of organizers of the march and a junior international relations and policy studies dual major, said she feels a lot of more confident and happier to know that people are aware of the issue and care about. She said she thinks more work needs to be done and is willing to be part of an event — such as a walk or a panel discussion— to get voices heard.

“But at least we did something. It’s better than nothing,” Guillen said.

Published on September 24, 2016 at 5:34 pm

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