Shouting “We want justice! We want it now!” about 300 students, faculty members and Gainesville residents marched from Turlington Plaza to Emerson Hall Tuesday afternoon to protest the University Police shooting of UF graduate student Kofi Adu-Brempong.
Adu-Brempong was shot with a gun by UPD officer Keith Smith in his Corry Village apartment March 2.
The rally was organized by members of Students for a Democratic Society, as well as independent Facebook groups created by friends and colleagues of Adu-Brempong.
At Emerson Hall, the marchers delivered a list of demands to the UF Board of Trustees.
The requests included dropping all charges against Adu-Brempong, firing Smith and creating a board of students and faculty to review UPD’s use-of-force policy.
Speakers at the protest, which included members of Adu-Brempong’s family, talked about police brutality.
“We will not be silent about this,” said Kwame Glover, Adu-Brempong’s nephew, who said he believes university police are involved in a cover-up. " We’re grateful and we’re hopeful that justice will prevail.”
When trustee Danny Ponce emerged to address the crowd, he said he could not promise to meet the demands today and was met with angry chants of “drop the charges” and “fire Keith Smith.”
“You have the university’s attention,” Ponce said. “I can assure that.”
Organizer Dave Schneider told the crowd to join him in a sit-in at Emerson Hall. About 100 people stayed behind, many missing class to show their support.
Elikem Nyamuame, also an international graduate student from Ghana, said he thinks there’s too much abuse in the current system against people of color, but feels the real tragedy is the loss of a good educator.
The sit-in lasted for about two and a half hours before organizers decided to head to Tigert Hall to read their demands.
The chants gained the attention of Patricia Telles-Irvin, UF’s vice president for student affairs, who emerged to accept the demands and promised to take them to President Machen.
UF spokesman Steve Orlando said it would be hard to meet the protesters’ demands.
For one, UF does not have the authority to drop any charges against Adu-Brempong, as that power now lies with the State Attorney’s office.
However, Orlando said the university applauded the peaceful nature of the rally.
“We are an academic institution, and we are 100 percent supportive of freedom of expression and freedom of speech,” Orlando said.
