Students and professors are calling on the University of Pennsylvania to not only disarm police but also eliminate its crime alert system and employee background checks as part of a campaign to ban all forms of law enforcement on campus.
Social policy associate professor Toorjo Ghose penned a letter to the college’s deans and board of directors with a list of demands to divest the campus from any form of police contact. The letter was adapted into a Change.org petition claiming UPenn has “institutionalized” a “racist fascist police state.” It has garnered nearly 12,000 signatures.
“Overzealous policing and security measures enunciates [sic] a racist relationship with the community that must stop,” the petition says.
Activists demand that the school disarm the police and implement a ban on criminal background checks for professors and employees of the university. The letter also calls on administrators to keep students in the dark about crimes that occur on campus by eliminating text and email alerts. Activists also demand that the university open the campus and all of its buildings to the surrounding community. The letter also claims the Ivy League university is strengthening the school-to-prison pipeline by not paying the property taxes it “owes” the city of Philadelphia. – READ MORE
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