On April 3rd, Students Against Private Police, Hopkins Coalition Against ICE, and other JHU students began a sit-in at Garland Hall, the school’s administration building on the Homewood campus. A rally and protest followed later in the day, featuring Tawanda Jones—organizer of West Wednesdays, a weekly rally to call for justice for the police killing of her brother Tyrone West—and countless testimonies by residents, community leaders, and students. This SAPP coalition (students, faculty, staff, and residents opposing the private police force) demand Hopkins to end their role in the militarization of communities.
On April 18th, Governor Hogan signed into law the legislation that will allow Hopkins to establish a private police force. As the sit-in reaches its fourth week, onlookers question the productiveness and utility of the protest, given the discouraging news and lack of redress to the coalition’s demands.
The coalition’s demands have been steadfast: 1) No private police 2) End the contracts with ICE and 3) Justice for Tyrone West. It hopes that the continued mobilization will win greater community accountability to the police force and culminate in a referendum to defeat the legislation next year. The legislation looks a lot different now than it did in 2018 and, although imperfect, is one of the most progressive pro-police pieces of legislation due to community backlash and organization.
At the end of the day, the odds are stacked against those in opposition to the private police force. It is very likely that the private police force will exist, that Hopkins will continue its contracts with ICE, and that the officer who allegedly killed Tyrone West will remain free.
Thus, the coalition’s ultimate goal cannot, and were never simply, those three demands. Movements die if they’re too narrowly focused.
It’s built coalitions by involving community organizations and residents, emphasizing their voices. It’s increased visibility throughout campus, through signage and simple one-pagers to make accessible the understanding of the issues. It’s used social media to get people involved, keep the public up-to-date, and pieces of history that speak to the troubled relationship between Hopkins and the city. It’s hosted teach-ins to raise awareness about disability activism, Chilean labor issues, sexuality and gender, Zionism, environmental justice, and the Goldsmiths Occupation at the University of London.
These presentations have actively sought to connect various struggles, to bring us out of the myopia of single issues to awareness of patterns of systemic injustice and exclusion. This movement has spearheaded an education campaign to encourage the critique of power. It has touched on various issues of inequality to be more inclusive and aid in capacity building.
This movement is about sustaining a commitment to demanding accountability from Hopkins and other institutions of power. It’s about strengthening the coalitions so that they can be a recognized, collective voice that tackles other issues proactively, rather than ad hoc.
Hopkins students have recognized the need to leverage their power as students at an elite institution, in ways that have not been mobilized as such a scale, and sought to build relationships with other community organizations.
That’s the most important, and most promising, piece to come out of this: the transformation of the relationship between Hopkins and Baltimore. While the leaders of the institution propose a police force which may worsen this relationship, students are trying to turn the tide.
It’s about rebuilding relations with the city, strengthening ties, and shifting perspectives on both ends: students who act like they’re just tourists and believe minimal involvement in the city, and apathy towards the issues beyond the ivory tower, are acceptable; who look towards the city with fear and a desire to be protected—this fear being the only perception of and relationship they have with Baltimore. Residents who look, with good reason, at Hopkins affiliates with suspicion and distrust.
The solidarity of groups isn’t just for common interests in pursuing a goal, but for a better foundation of shared understanding and ability to communicate and collaborate without tension and mistrust.
When students, security, staff, or elite alumni question your place here simply because you’re black; when those with privilege angrily dismiss your opinions, lived experiences, or simply your identity without self-reflection; or when elites spaces remain unchanged and continue to perpetuate unequal balances of power, changing our relationship with Baltimore requires us to look within. This is for the students who don’t look like they belong—people of color, poor, working class—claiming their place here, claiming respect for themselves and other people like them throughout the city.
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