A makeshift police memorial erected at Dartmouth University for National Police Week was vandalized by Black Lives Matter supporters.
According to The Dartmouth, the pro-police cork board display created by the College Republicans in the Dartmouth’s Collis Center was taken over Friday morning, replaced by posters reading “You cannot co-opt the movement against state violence to memorialize its perpetrators. #blacklivesmatter.”
It was not until 11AM on Saturday that Collis employees removed the vandals’ handiwork on the reserved board, allowing the College Republicans to put their display back up, this time with a sign that read “Bulletin Board Reserved for the College Republicans. Do not post.”
College President Phil Hanlon sent out a campus-wide announcement via email, referring to the BLM hijacking of the display as “an unacceptable violation of freedom of expression.” Hanlon wrote that any students found to be involved will be subject to disciplinary action.
However, not all students agree- particularly in a University whose student body has been known to harbor many supporters of the BLM movement.
Mikala Williams -one of the students who replaced the display- said that she and several others took down the original signs because they felt it reinforced police brutality against minorities.
“It was taken down by students and replaced because it actively co-opted a movement that is supposed to comment on police brutality against black individuals in this country,” she said. “It took that and by framing that as ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ it normalizes and naturalizes violence against people of color in this country. And that is not okay. That is in no way okay.”
The College Republicans had reserved the board via a three-week process involving paperwork and permits.
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