CSULB Students React To Tyre Nichols’ Death

By Daniel Rivera, Intern Reporter
On Jan. 27, the Memphis City Police Department released footage of the beating of Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop that is believed to have led to his death a few days later. The Memphis Police Department suspended two officers, fired and charged another five with murder.

Not long after, the Cal State University Long Beach Police issued a message condemning the in-custody killing by police. The email was printed out and distributed around campus, after they were posted an unknown person wrote “complicit” on them. A portion of the students at the campus don’t believe the message issued by the campus police was an adequate response.

Cal State Long Beach students followed suit with a peaceful demonstration on the campus’ center quad as activists stood in solidarity with Nichols’ family and other victims of police brutality, chanting the rally slogan, “Say their names.” They believe the message issued by the police department on campus is not enough and urged the campus administration to divert funding from the on-campus police department to funding for community services.

The crowd initially gathered near the “Go Beach” sign and moved on to the center quad around 12 p.m. The crowd grew a bit larger, with several people speaking during the protest, which lasted from around 12 p.m. to about 2 p.m. 

The protest was organized by several on-campus student organizations, like the La Fuerza Student Association and Cal State Long Beach Black Student Union. Students from supporting organizations came from other schools, like Angel Marie, who is a part of Students for Quality Education, a statewide student advocacy group.

“When they sent out that email, we moved fast on that,” said Isaiah Sanchez, an organizer on campus and speaker.

He explained that the rally itself only took about one to two days to actually organize with the first message going out on Instagram on Jan. 30.

When asked about his reaction to the footage, he said, “I’m not surprised but I’m disgusted… I feel like that is a common reaction from people that look like that, it’s a common fact of reality. It’s the life we live.”

He went on to share how his paranoia was brought on by the fear of police. He said at the age of 12, he was taught to always have his school ID so that if he had a run-in with police, he could be identified as a student. 

When asked about what he wanted, he said he wants the campus to divest from the school’s police services to move that money into community resources. 

According to informationfrom Cal State Long Beach, it spent around $4 million on various police-related services in 2020.

After the George Floyd protests, cities across the country increased their policing budgets.

“It’s just really sad to see, you know,” said Angelina Sanchez, a third year student who was attending, who shared her thoughts on the video. “It honestly ruins my outlook on life … we kind of get a little pessimistic on society in general.”

According to data gathered by Mapping Police Violence, 2022 has seen the most police killings since the group started collecting data back 2013, going from 1,085 in 2013 to 1,192 people killed by police in 2022. About 43% of the people who were killed were Black.

Ayoola Fadonougbo, another organizer and speaker, explained what message he wants the school to hear.

“It would be to prioritize what the students want, what the students need … coming from the leaders themselves because the leaders who are students know students the most,” Fada Muko said.

Several students didn’t feel comfortable sharing their full names, but shared many of the same thoughts as those who did.

Cal State Long Beach Police Chief John Brockie said that the organizers of the protest did not reach out to him directly. He went on to explain that despite the students not reaching out he is willing.

“I’ll meet with any student organizations that want to,” Brockie said.

When asked if he or the department planned on meeting with the student organizations that coordinated the protest, he explained that they work through third parties and that it’s not up to him.

“I wanted to change the wording of the message,” Brockie said as he explained that the intention of the message was to let the community know that they condemn the violence on those tapes.

The campus administration was also reached out to, but as of writing, there has been no response.