Human biology junior Cynthera McNeill said she has often attended campus events where violent fistfights have broken out.
And McNeill, who’s black, said she believes MSU’s Department of Police and Public Safety doesn’t deal with the minority student community effectively when such conflicts arise.
“They don’t do their job,” she said. “I’ve seen them stand back and watch fights escalate.”
Microbiology senior Osie Gaines, a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and the National Pan-hellenic Council president, said he’s heard complaints against MSU police, and has said it’s time to take action.
“I’ve been here since 1996, and I’ve seen a disturbing trend since coming here of African Americans not liking the way that DPPS has been handling things,” he said.
So Gaines, along with Alpha Phi Alpha, representatives from the National Panhellenic Council and Black Student Alliance, will host a forum at 7:30 p.m. today in the Akers Hall auditorium. The forum is designed to provide students with an opportunity to express concerns with campus police, Gaines said.
Gaines said he began his drive to improve relations between MSU police and minority students after an incident at Lansing’s L.A. Globe Inc., 6810 S. Cedar St., was broken up by Lansing police earlier this month.
He said students then gathered in a Spartan Village parking lot where fights erupted and gunshots were fired.
During a discussion held at a BSA meeting Sept. 21, Gaines said he didn’t feel the police did enough to stop the violence.
MSU police Chief Bruce Benson, Sgt. Alan Haller and Officer Kahlil Wasson attended the BSA meeting. Wasson said while the Spartan Village incident was not the ideal situation, the police officers on the scene that night did all they could to control the large crowd.
“That was a very violent situation,” he said at the meeting. “I don’t think you would have wanted us to jump into those five or six fights.”
MSU police Capt. Dave Trexler said the department will not be at tonight’s forum, but it will work to establish effective communication.
“We’re developing focus groups to discuss the issue and we’ve invited Osie to participate,” he said.
Geneva Smitherman, an English professor, has been working with Alpha Phi Alpha on communicating its grievances with MSU police.
“They know that these problems exist, but I haven’t seen them do anything to address the problem,” she said. “I thought it would have been dealt with by now, but these things keep happening
“Something has to be done.”
