Students and Professors Boycott Over Police Brutality at Oberlin College

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Story from the April 29, 1990 Edition of the New York Times

Students, Professors Boycott

Over Police Brutality

OBERLIN — After a confrontation between the Oberlin police and demonstrators, many students boycotted classes last Tuesday while professors canceled other classes to attend a communitywide forum on what they say was police brutality. Townspeople also attended the forum.

The confrontation on April 13, involving hundreds of students and Oberlin residents, campus security officers and members of the Oberlin Police Department, began as a demonstration against bigotry. It resulted in the arrest of six demonstrators. At an arraignment on Friday, the demonstrators all pleaded not guilty to a variety of charges including assault on a police officer, attempted theft, resisting arrest, failure to disperse, obstructing official business and inciting to violence.

Responding to the incident, which engendered a series of student demonstrations, Oberlin's president, S. Frederick Starr, issued a letter to the college community listing five actions that would be taken. These are the actions:

* The formation of a committee to determine whether any college policies on off-campus demonstrations should be changed.

* The convening of a faculty meeting to discuss student demands like college sponsorship of a national conference on bigotry, a study of campus access for students with disabilities and student representation on the Board of Trustees.

* Sponsorship of workshops by Oberlin College and the Police Department on the conduct for peaceful demonstrations.

* The staging of workshops for the community at large to discuss students' rights, police procedures and city-college relations generally.

* The presentation of forums on issues of minority admissions and retention, access for handicapped students and a proposed tuition freeze.

In an earlier announcement, Mr. Starr said the college would not file trespassing charges against demonstrators.

'Speak Out' on Bigotry

The April 13 demonstration began at 11 P.M. and proceeded to the home of Oberlin's president, where protesters started a ''speak out'' against bigotry. Mr. Starr was not home at the time.

The confrontation took place after campus security officers asked seated demonstrators to disperse and the town police moved to arrest a speaker during his speech. The speaker, Steven De Castro, who graduated in December, was wanted for failure to appear in court on a traffic charge, said Oberlin's Chief of Police, Robert Jones.

Mr. De Castro was held for inciting to violence, a felony, among other charges. The other five held, including one town resident, were charged with misdemeanors.

''Two or three police trampled into the crowd and tackled the student speaker from behind, strangling him in a choke hold,'' according to a statement by the protest's organizers, who later designated themselves the Student Defense Committee.

But the security chief for the college, Richard McDaniel, said, the speaker ''resisted, the crowd held him back and a number of people began assaulting officers.''

Crowd Estimates Vary

After the town police issued a countywide call for assistance, additional officers from the County Sheriff's Office and other surrounding areas arrived. The police estimated the crowd at 300; student leaders said it grew to 500.

The Student Defense Committee charged that the officers removed their badges, beat demonstrators and dragged them by their hair. Chief Jones said it is normal procedure for the officers to remove outer badges to prevent them from being torn off. The officers were still wearing inner badges, he said.

After college officials were called to the scene, the arrested students were released. Police said 42 complaints were filed with the department the next morning.

Mr. Starr said the question is between students and Oberlin city police because the confrontation took place off campus, but Chief Jones said in an interview that the police were called to the scene by campus security officers at the request of the office of the college president to remove trespassers.