OXFORD, Miss. — Students yelled “no justice, no peace” across the University of Mississippi campus on Wednesday as they fought for police accountability.
It came one day after an officer was charged for shooting and killing an unarmed man running away from him in South Carolina.
“The police violence against African-Americans has to stop,” Ashley Pryor said.
Pryor played dead outside of the Ole Miss Student Union to simulate being a victim of police violence.
Dozens of students stretched out on the ground to make a point.
“This could be my brother or my cousin one day,” Pryor explained. “I mean you just never know. It’s happening everywhere.”
“I am Walter Scott,” the large group of students screamed.
Scott’s name was written on signs among other victims’ names after organizers had learned he was close to one of their own.
“The death of Walter Scott Saturday — I mean it affects all of us,” Allen Cook said.
Ole Miss football player Fadol Brown said Scott was a father figure to him and tweeted, in part, that Scott was shot down “like a dog.”
“We are human beings, and we don’t deserve to be shot down in the street like that,” Pryor said.
The fiery words shouted out came from students on a campus, that they said, is still battling a long history of racism.
“It’s not reported. So people think it doesn’t happen, but it does,” Pryor stated.
“These incidences stem from a pattern of generalizations about black people, negative stereotypes about black people being ignorant, being violent,” Dominique Scott, an African-American Studies major, said.
The group of students said they hope to change negative stereotypes before another life is cut short.
An attorney for Scott’s family said he likely ran because he was wanted on a warrant for for back child support which can land you in jail in South Carolina. He had previously been arrested for that charge as well as contempt of court and assault and battery.