‘We were fighting for justice, not violence’: IU students rally for Black lives lost

Joseph Smedley’s life mattered

Students at Indiana University held a demonstration on Monday in memory of Joseph Smedley, a student who was found dead last October. Although not organized by our university, actually not even permitted, students joined Students Against State Violence (SASV) and IU Black Student Union in a Black Lives Matter rally.

At Indiana University each and every individual student works together to create a unique and cohesive, yet diverse community. We all care about one another. We are all equal. We are not just students, we are a family. While the university may advocate these statements, some students have something else to say.

Let’s start by asking this, can you tell me who Lauren Spierer is? I’m sure you can. Her face has been on several billboards since her disappearance in 2011. What about Hannah Wilson? I’m sure you all heard President McRobbie’s heartfelt comment to the press and students of the university. Now here’s a challenging one. Who is Joseph Smedley?

Joseph Smedley was one of our students, one of our equals, one of our family members. He was until his body was found dead in Griffy Lake on October 2, 2015.

While all these heart wrenching occurrences are equally as important as the other, students at the rally believe that police enforcement are not looking at them in the same manner due to racial differences.

Students gathered around Sample Gates at 6:30pm waiting to hear from “Leah Humphrey and Kyra Harvey from Indy10 Black Lives Matter, Kealia Hollingsworth, President the Black Student Union, Angaza Iman Bahar of IDOC Watch, Yassmin Fashir, Bella Chavez of GlobeMed, and Stanley Njuguna of Students for a Democratic Society,” according to the SASV press release. They came together to rally against “racialized police violence and institutional racism” that has ended the lives of “Tyre King, age 13, Terrence Crutcher, age 40, Keith Lamont Scott, age 43, Korryn Gaines, age 23, Alfred Olango, age 38,” and many others.

The SASV and IU Black Student Union viewed the rally as “an opportunity for us all to express our grief and anger about the constant police violence against Black people, and to pressure the BPD to cooperate with the family of Joseph Smedley.”

Participant Selena Drake, Freshman, viewed this as an opportunity to support the minority community in Bloomington. “I wanted to participate for my brothers and sisters. I want to let my community of minorities know that they are not alone,” said Drake.

As she marched the streets to downtown, Drake listened to Andrea M. Sterling and Peter McDonald about their first hand accounts with police violence as well as their experiences in speaking with Black men incarcerated at the Wabash Jail for “petty crimes.”

“The point [of the speeches] was to show all the harm that the police force caused. Our fight is for justice in the order system,” explained Drake.

SASV said they wanted, “to make it clear that we think it is very important to not only focus on male, cis-gendered, or ‘innocent’ victims of police violence. It is necessary for us to research the cases and know the names of Black women and trans people who have suffered at the hands of the police and other forms of state violence, and to defend those who the media and politicians portray as undeserving of sympathy or defense.”

Smedley was the main focus of defense in during this rally. “The whole reason why we were there was because of him and the lack of police involvement,” said Drake.

Smedley’s death was declared suicide a few weeks after the discovery of this body but according to Drake police enforcement withheld information like brushes on his body and rocks in his book bag.

The final stop of the march, which was the blocking of the intersection downtown was, “in protest of the Bloomington Police Department’s (BPD) ongoing refusal to cooperate with the family of Joseph Smedley.” SASV believe that there was not sufficient investigation done to declare Smedley’s death a suicide.

“We were fighting for justice, not violence,” said Drake.

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