Candles were lit and cell phone flashes were on to symbolize the light in lives of folks at the Rock. @thesnews pic.twitter.com/UegXbigmEJ
— S. Martínez-Beltrán (@SergioMarBel) November 25, 2014
Black Student Alliance, MSU community gathers to paint the Rock in response to grand jury decision in Ferguson
The winds were strong, their voices were louder.
Students gathered in The Rock on Monday night in response to the decision made by a Grand Jury to decline to indict Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson, whose shots killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.
The decision comes after weeks of awaiting for a grand jury to decide if Wilson would face state charges.
Black Student Alliance President Rashad Timmons said the decision made by the grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., was an unsurprising one.
"I hate to say it was expected ... because there is a historical prevalence of this type of behavior in this type of incident with no repercussions and no type of conviction happening over and over in the history of our nation," Timmons said.
Timmos said the decision reflects what happens systematically in the United States.
"It speaks of a larger systematic issue that we have in our nation, according to police brutality (and) violence against community of colors," Timmons said.
Brown's death stirred protests in Ferguson, Mo., and around the nation where protestors asked for justice, saying the teenager's case is an example of excess brutality and racial bias from the police department.
The case was the focus of protest earlier this fall that attracted hundreds for a march from Beaumont Tower to East Lansing City Hall, where students and community members issued demands to the East Lansing Police Department.
Comparative cultures and politics senior Salem Joseph said the event held at the Rock was to acknowledge the lives of blacks.
"Part why we did this was to show that, even if our larger society may not acknowledge us, we can acknowledge each other," Joseph said. "One of the things I have been saying all year to all of our black caucuses is that one of these days the revolution will be digitised."
Although some people may doubt it, interdisciplinary studies senior Tee Sanders said the millenials are in charge of ending with injustices.
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"These people, they came out here because they feel something, they are upset, they are hurt, they know something is not right," Sanders said. "They are looking for the Martin Luther King, they are looking for the Malcolm X and I say that is you."
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