2008 Woodie Awards
Snelgrove remembered at memorial protest
Emerson student join police brutality march
Bill Dvorak
Issue date: 10/27/05 Section: News
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A group of protesters, including members of the Emerson Anti-Authoritarians, converged at the Boston Police Department (BPD) headquarters in Roxbury on Oct. 22 to protest police brutality only a day after members of the Emerson community gathered to remember the life of Victoria Snelgrove.
Snelgrove, a junior broadcast journalism major, was killed last year after a projectile fired by a "less lethal" weapon used by police struck her during the celebration following the American League Championship Series.
The Emerson Anti-Authoritarians formed at the beginning of this semester to protest the government and abuses of power by authority figures, spokesperson and sophomore audio/radio major Jake Carman said. He said the group has six core members and about 23 occasional members.
Carman, who was responsible for the group's involvement in the protest, said the participation was a way of expressing anger over Snelgrove's death and other incidents of police brutality.
"While our group is naturally against police authority, our main motivation was last year's killing of Emerson student Victoria Snelgrove," Carman said. "We are trying to get the word out that police abuse of power must be put to an end."
Although the BPD demoted or suspended several officers involved in the Snelgrove incident, none of the officers face criminal charges.
"I'm still going to fight the use of less lethal weapons," Carman said. "They are still lethal if used improperly, and this protest is just one way of letting people know that police have killed innocent people before."
According to Carman, The Boston Anarchist Black Cross, a prisoner defense and prison abolitionist group, was mainly responsible for planning the march, but several other organizations took part in the process as well.
"A number of groups showed up at the meeting [to discuss the event]," he said. "We shared our ideas and our concerns, developed a direction we wanted to go with the day, put the schedule together and then went about spreading the word through fliers and word of mouth."
Snelgrove, a junior broadcast journalism major, was killed last year after a projectile fired by a "less lethal" weapon used by police struck her during the celebration following the American League Championship Series.
The Emerson Anti-Authoritarians formed at the beginning of this semester to protest the government and abuses of power by authority figures, spokesperson and sophomore audio/radio major Jake Carman said. He said the group has six core members and about 23 occasional members.
Carman, who was responsible for the group's involvement in the protest, said the participation was a way of expressing anger over Snelgrove's death and other incidents of police brutality.
"While our group is naturally against police authority, our main motivation was last year's killing of Emerson student Victoria Snelgrove," Carman said. "We are trying to get the word out that police abuse of power must be put to an end."
Although the BPD demoted or suspended several officers involved in the Snelgrove incident, none of the officers face criminal charges.
"I'm still going to fight the use of less lethal weapons," Carman said. "They are still lethal if used improperly, and this protest is just one way of letting people know that police have killed innocent people before."
According to Carman, The Boston Anarchist Black Cross, a prisoner defense and prison abolitionist group, was mainly responsible for planning the march, but several other organizations took part in the process as well.
"A number of groups showed up at the meeting [to discuss the event]," he said. "We shared our ideas and our concerns, developed a direction we wanted to go with the day, put the schedule together and then went about spreading the word through fliers and word of mouth."
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