We entered the building fiercely determined to hold the space overnight. And we could have succeeded had we all been on the same page about our relationship with the police.

Shortly after we arrived on the second story, some of the officers who had followed told us they would help to distribute free food that was leftover from a conference. The authors and some others guessed this was a ruse and expressed some anti-police sentiment. Upon doing so, we were confronted by a white-passing person who questioned us and said, “How can you say such mean things? The police are just being respectful and nice.”

A few of us then headed down the south stairwell and ran into a heated confrontation. The protesters had been peacefully making their way into the building and the cops aggressively escalated the situation: hands on their guns, they shut the doors in protesters’ faces. The person who had questioned the anti-police sentiment earlier was standing next to us. The look on their face was pure shock. They, like many others in attendance, were surprised that the police locked the doors.

It is highly likely, albeit not certain, that the police decided to shut down the building following orders from MSU administration higher-ups. This is partially confirmed by us personally seeing Allyn Shaw, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Services, entering the north side of the building around 8:15 p.m. As soon as a movement for liberation came into conflict with the MSU administration they called in the shock troops: the MSU police.

Those of us that were prepared for the police escalation spent the next few hours trying to outsmart them and sneak more protesters into the building. We had various levels of success. But we were able to dive into the task straightaway because we were not surprised that the police turned on us. In fact, we were expecting it the entire night. The police always stand in the way of progressive movements. The only difference is whether or not we choose to recognize this.

While the cops upstairs wore a mask of cooperation and provided food to protesters, their partners were downstairs stifling the occupation by locking the doors and refusing to let people in. The police were ultimately there to lie to us, fool us and shut us down. Let’s not make the same mistake again.

In our efforts to get more supporters into the building we encountered the cops in our own ranks: the “peace police.” These are our classmates dressed in the garb of protesters but effectively acting as police collaborators. They care more about “peace” than justice. As we were trying to aid the wishes of the occupation upstairs by getting more people into the building, the peace police would challenge us as instigators. They also cooperated with the police to help effectively shut us out of the building. One participant informed the police that we were “sneaking” people into the building, a public building that is normally open until 2 a.m. At another point in a skirmish at a door one of the cops slammed the door on a protester's fingers, almost breaking them. The peace police read the impossible into that situation and told the protester to not escalate! Almost unbelievable!

There are two lessons to be learned as we move forward in the fight against oppression, a fight that will only gain momentum under the new president-elect:

1. All struggles for social justice must confront the police as a primary enemy. There is no progress that is pro-police.

2. Once we recognize the police as our enemy, let’s act that way. Coordinating marches with the police is a sign of utter disrespect to the people that have been murdered by them. When we plan building occupations or similar actions, let’s not for one second be deceived that the police are on our side. If all of us from the beginning had assumed the worst of the police, we could have locked them out and held the Union for as long as we wished. In sum, we can achieve all of our wildest (anti-Trump) dreams. But proudly cooperating with the police subverts any hope of liberation.

This letter was written by MSU alumni Quinlan Hoffman, Zoe Jackson and Evan Stivers as well as history and jazz studies senior Duncan Tarr, social relations and policy senior Leon Hister and human biology senior Crystal Nance-Panek.