The mother of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old who was shot and killed by a police officer, spoke at the event commemorating the killing of four Kent State students by the National Guard in 1970.
A boulder that Kent State University students often write messages on was spray painted with the words "Cops Live's [sic] Matter" on Wednesday — the same day the campus remembered the 46th anniversary of the National Guard fatally shooting four people during an anti-Vietnam war protest.
Ryllie Danyiko
Each year Kent State University holds a ceremony in commemoration of the May 4, 1970 killings. The National Guard who were called in to quell a non-violent campus protest.
A student "task force" chooses the ceremony speakers each year, a university spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. This year they decided to draw a connection between the Kent State students and the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality occurring around the country.
The task force invited Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice – a 12-year-old who was shot and killed by a police officer while playing with a toy gun in Cleveland — to deliver a speech regarding police use of force.
The morning of her appearance, the campus boulder – an symbol of freedom of speech on campus, one alumnus told BuzzFeed News – was covered with anti-Black Lives Matter sentiments, including the words "No Rice."
"Very disappointed in my alma mater," one alumni wrote on Kent State's official Facebook page on Wednesday, echoing the public Facebook comments and tweets of dozens of people claiming to be Kent State alumni or students.
Many of those angry with the school said the anniversary of those killed for protesting the Vietnam war was not a time for politics, but remembrance. Others took a more directly anti-Black Lives Matter approach, using the hashtag #AllLivesMatter or calling Tamir Rice a criminal.
On Wednesday pictures began circulating online of the Kent State rock — upon which "anyone is allowed to write anything," university spokesperson Emily Vincent told BuzzFeed News – with the words "All Lives Matter," "Shame on you KSU," and "Cops Live's [sic] Matter." It was also signed with the acronyms for Kent State Police Department and other local police departments in the area.
Courtney Root, a firefighter in the area, told BuzzFeed News that she saw a man with his hood up graffitiing the words on the rock Wednesday morning. When she asked him if he was a police officer, he "danced around answering," she said, "but made it pretty clear that he was."
The Kent State Police Department told BuzzFeed News no one was immediately available for comment.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/23sC7iw
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