Charlottesville Students Issue Anti-Police Demands: Cops Target People of Color, Protect Wealth

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The University of Virginia (UVA) Students United distributed a list of demands and accusations against the university and police as a demonstration billed as anti-white supremacy devolved into an anti-law enforcement, anarchist event on Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“Last year they came with torches, this year they come with badges,” the statement said. “We will not be holding the rally within the confines of policing apparatus forced upon us by the University administration. It is a betrayal of our ideals and our community.”

The statement included a list of demands:

 • Payment or Waiving of Medical Fees for all survivors of August 11th and 12th

• Denouncement of White Supremacy in the form of issuing Lifelong No Trespass orders to identified White Supremacists present on August 11th

• Transparency for the undisclosed profits raised by the Concert for Charlottesville

The statement also included a list of how the University “retaliated” against the protesters by suggesting protesters wear wristbands so they could be identified, setting up barricades, providing a space for counter-protesters, and housing police in student dorms for the weekend

The statement then laid out its anti-police stance, saying, “You may think that the cops are here to protect us, but we disagree. We know instead that:

• Cops have a history of violence against anti-racist protestors, as we experienced last year at the KKK rally and saw in the past 10 days in Portland and Berkley.

• The institution of policing was created from the system of slave patrols. Today the function of the police continues to be to over patrol Black communities, target people of color and protect wealth.

• Police are routinely exempt from punishment regardless of biased, excessive force and violence. Furthermore, the Courts, in the service of police control, intentionally punish anti-racist activists.

• Increased police presence only results in increased police violence.

“The City and the University’s desire to control images and protect their brands has created a dangerous police state. They’re not here to protect us, they’re here to control us. We will not comply,” the statement concluded.

Antifa and Unite the Right 2 protests are planned on Sunday in Washington, DC.

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