To pull the trigger yet answer our calls:

An analysis of police violence against students and community members at Northeastern University.

The Northeastern University Police Department (NUPD), Boston Police Department (BPD), and Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) all serve one common goal: To maintain. To maintain power structures keeping some elevated and others disadvantaged. To maintain order, but only as it pertains to the masses that have the potential to make a positive change for ourselves. To maintain the systems that serve the elite, capitalist interests of corporations, such as the imperialist entity that Northeastern University has become. We would like to fully convey just how rampant racism and classism runs in law enforcement, including on college campuses through methods of deadly exchange.

Police enforcement cannot be ‘redeemed’ or ‘fixed,’ regardless of what college administrators, or even the government tries to tell us. No police reform will change what law enforcement was initially built upon. Police were originally created not to protect, but to enforce the status quo of slavery, return enslaved people to their captors, and stomp out uprisings as they fought for liberation. 

Nothing has changed but the uniforms they wear. Their goals, values, and employers have stayed the same. They have, and always will, work for people in power to keep marginalized communities oppressed.

But in that case, who is there left to call when the police commit the crime? Who is here to keep the police from breaking the laws they supposedly enforce? Who is here to ensure law enforcement take responsibility for their own misconduct?

The answer is us. There is no one else. 

It is now our duty to ensure that those armed with semi-automatic rifles don't abuse their power. The power they have been abusing for years to discourage, threaten, disrespect, and assault students and community members in the neighborhoods Northeastern has stolen land from. As Northeastern takes more and more land and property from marginalized Boston neighborhoods, they try to define what is considered tresspassable or not. This in turn emboldens NUPD to abuse their power upon our community.

This article will explore the hostile culture and brutality of NUPD, BPD, and other police have fostered for students, staff, and community members on campus and in the Boston community in three areas:  post-encampment arrests, other on-campus abuses of power, and abuses of power in Boston neighborhoods beyond the Northeastern campus. We will then provide identifying information of NUPD officers to be especially aware of and conclude by offering a list of community resources that can be used as an alternative to police. We argue that one, systems of oppression in Palestine by the IOF are not isolated but are in fact connected with oppression around the world and here in the US, two, the police are integral in this system of oppression, and we must therefore no longer rely on them for protection. 

On Saturday, April 27, 2024, Northeastern University Police (NUPD) aggressively surrounded, threatened, and assisted Massachusetts State Police (MSP) in arresting nearly 100 protestors demonstrating to bring to light Northeastern’s complicity with the genocide in Gaza, and its ties to war profiteers. 

The students and faculty present that day were part of a community-centered and inclusive encampment, demanding three things: 

Divest: that Northeastern ends its ties with the terrorist Zionist entity of Israel, and its partnerships with weapons and war-profiteering industries. 

Disclose: that Northeastern discloses all of its investments and financial ties to Israel and weapons and war-profiteering industries

Denounce: that Northeastern denounces the genocide Israel is inflicting upon Gaza. 

Because of the straightforward demands of the protest, the Northeastern administration had to scramble to justify shutting down the encampment. Shortly before the arrests took place early that morning, Northeastern administrator Renata Nyul proliferated the dangerous lie that pro-Palestinian protestors spewed vitriol and toxicity about members in our Jewish community. Multiple eye-witness accounts and video evidence prove that it was the Zionist counter-protesters who called out "kill the Jews" in a failed attempt to have it repeated by peaceful, anti-genocide protesters. Despite the evidence, this lie was used as an excuse to shut down the encampment, harass and injure students, and steal several belongings from the encampment. Moreover, NUPD assured the very protestors that voiced anti-Semitic chants that they would not be arrested, then turned around and arrested almost 100 protestors. 

NUPD collaborated with MA state police to arrest these community members for protesting bloodshed. This is not a recent development in NUPD behavior. NUPD, BPD, MA State Police, and in fact all law enforcement, are part of an inherently oppressive system. U.S. Police enforcement, including BPD, often train with the IOF to learn some of the most brutal, violent and intense methods of oppression. As arrests were being made by NUPD of protestors at the encampment, police engaged in predatory, inappropriate, and violent behavior toward students. The following are just a handful of the recorded incidents that took place during these arrests. 

· As arrests began, NUPD prohibited a medic from coming to help someone inside of the encampment who had fallen unconscious.

· One officer physically searched a student for an ID while her hands were zip tied behind her back instead of allowing her to hand it to them, as others were allowed to do.

"When she was brought into Shillman with her hands zip tied behind her back, a Northeastern Police Officer threatened that if she did not show her Northeastern ID, she would lose all her financial aid and be expelled from the university. Scared, the student turned to one of her friends and explained that she had placed her ID and inhaler inside her shirt, and that she wasn’t sure how she’d get it out, since her hands were zip tied. According to the female student, one male cop laughed and said: “Oh, don’t worry, we have ways of getting in there.” Source: Unicorn Riot 

·After zip-tying their hands, officers escorted the arrestees to Shillman Hall, an academic building, where they were put in different classrooms. The collaboration between NUPD, MSP, and the Northeastern administration to use an academic building, meant for the purpose of education, to harassing and processing peaceful protesters--the very students and faculty meant to learn and teach in that building--is a gross misuse of power.

· Students were prohibited from using the bathroom once arrested and placed in Shillman Hall. This is another example of the police's humiliation tactics against students. Later, some students were forced to urinate on the floor of jail cells. One student made note of an officer saying, “She is under arrest don’t let her use the bathroom, she will get the right to when she is in jail.” 

· Many students were lied to about their rights or not read their rights at all. Police continued to pressure arrestees for information even after they stated they wanted to speak to an attorney. 

· Police arrested and brutalized a medic, dragging their face across the ground as they were being taken away. 

· NUPD told protesters that they would not be arrested if they show their Northeastern IDs. However, several students who showed their Northeastern IDs were still arrested, and many were not even given the option to show their ID. 

· During some arrests, officers pushed students to the ground and put their knee on their backs. This is one example of how globally interconnected systems of oppression are. The knee-on-back strategy is one that has been used by countless officers. It has been infamously used in the heartbreaking case of George Floyd, the Black man who was killed by police and sparked the 2020 BLM protests. In the aftermath of Floyd's murder, several Palestinians spoke up about the IOF using the same knee-on-back method on them. In fact, many facts indicate that Israeli forces taught this technique to American cops, including some based in Massachusetts and Boston specifically. 

· While the arrests were taking place, protesters gathered outside of Shillman Hall in an attempt to de-arrest. A counter-protester walked through the crowd and threatened to shoot them, directly in front of NUPD officers. NUPD officers completely ignored this, again clarifying the type of people they protect. One woman who experienced the counter-protester's threat directly, as the Zionist made a shooting motion directed at her, provided a statement for us to quote anonymously:

"In public school all my life, it was ingrained in me that police are our friends. But that is contradictory to what happened. Because I was being threatened, and my so-called friends were watching me be threatened, and they had every authority to stop that from happening and to remove the dangerous man from the situation, but they continued to be entertained by him instead of standing up for me as they are hired to do by my tax dollars. Because it was ingrained in me that the police are my friends, it was an automatic impulse for me to ask them to intervene. I assumed that the person to protect me would be the police, but they denied my right to be protected. I knew that I was in a crowd of people who were trying to stand for something right, and I realized in that moment very quickly that the idea of a police force standing up for me was a lie. I also felt very undermined by the [NUPD] officer because he patronizingly told me to "relax." How could I relax after someone threatened to shoot me? The Zionist was enjoying the fact that he was the one who felt protected by the police to be able to threaten me right there in my face."    

· NUPD and BPD forced legal observers to vacate the area the arrests were happening so that they could not accurately record the aggressive and inappropriate police interactions with non-violent protestors. Legal observers are independent witnesses of police behavior at protests. 

· As one student was arrested and gave her name and date of birth to others on jail support, the police became aggressive, grabbing her arms that were already zip tied, and pushing them toward her upper back, accusing her of resisting arrest. When she entered Shillman, a building on the Northeastern campus, another student asked why the police were hurting her. The police proceeded to surround him and throw him to the ground. They had previously inappropriately touched this student when patting him down.

Following these dehumanizing arrests, midday on Saturday, the Northeastern administration boasted about their violence, with admin  going as far as to write, "We want to thank NUPD, our student life staff, and the University's external partners for their flawless execution this morning." 

Following these dehumanizing arrests, midday on Saturday, the Northeastern administration boasted about their violence, with admin  going as far as to write, "We want to thank NUPD, our student life staff, and the University's external partners for their flawless execution this morning." 

It is time we step out of Northeastern's hierarchical structure and make our own. We must hold the administration and police accountable for their sorely misguided words and actions. If not us, who are they protecting? They only serve the interests of those in power, such as President Aoun, who has been silent about our demands, silent about the police violence on campus, and silent about his own faculty spreading lies about our student body in order to further push the police against us. He refuses to communicate with students who want to have a conversation with him about the genocide that Northeastern vehemently supports. Joseph Aoun holds the title of president of a university he has always been disconnected from. He does not hear the voices of our students because he has never cared to listen.  It has become increasingly clear that police systems, especially the systems that the Northeastern administration is quick to call on against community members, do not protect or serve the people. MA State Police does not protect or serve the Massachusetts community, nor does NUPD protect the Northeastern community. They protect the power of the administration. If the Northeastern administration does not want changes to be made, they will enforce every officer in their reach to prevent that change.

The brutal arrest of student protesters is only one recent instance of NUPD abusing their power. But this is part of a long, ugly pattern of entitlement and gross abuses of authority that are inseparable from the history of Northeastern and of policing. Northeastern University relies heavily on NUPD for non-dangerous issues. They use NUPD more often to protect their own image rather than the safety of the students. The following are several examples detailing this. 

· In October 2023, NUPD assaulted assaulted Pro-Palestine student protestors on campus. 

· In April 2024, Northeastern University used NUPD to investigate students using video footage, tracking their phones using campus Wi-Fi, and calling students on their personal phones to threaten them. This was done in response to students who demanded that the genocide in Gaza be discussed during the school's Holocaust and Genocide Awareness week. Occurring the first week of every April since 1977, Northeastern University refused to acknowledge Palestine in their efforts to memorialize holocausts and genocides worldwide. Rather than accept students' request to discuss these atrocities alongside others, Northeastern University used their police to threaten and surveil students, punishing them for distributing flyers to raise awareness about Gaza's genocide during Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week. The use of campus Wi-Fi to track, surveil, and identify students is just one of many examples of police use of campus infrastructure, supposedly meant to support learning, to police and repress students. In addition, later in the month, following the shut down of the encampment, police used classrooms in Shillman Hall, an academic building, to arrest, detain, and harass students. 

· On May 15, 2024, students commemorated Nakba Day by holding a memorial and posting Palestinian poems and photos of Palestinians who were murdered by Israel. This again resulted in police interference, as NUPD, including officer Ruben Galindo ripped down artwork, photographs, and messages recognizing the gross human rights abuses. They snatched flyers, ripped down artwork, and threatened to sanction our students, once again for showing the humanity they lacked.

· Northeastern University used NUPD to threaten students organizing the Graduate Student Union (GSU). Northeastern administration has made it clear that they do not support a graduate student union, and have resorted to sending armed officers to students' desks, unnotified, to threaten them with false charges.

· NUPD removed Alex Ahmed, a trans woman, and her co-president from a GSU event, targeting queer people of color.

· NUPD assaulted a student during graduation, at the Undergraduate Commencement at Fenway, on May 5, 2024. NUPD officer Timothy Flynn arrested a non-violent protestor during their graduation, inflicting as much harm as possible by tightening restraints until circulation was cut off. The officer proceeded to inappropriately touch said student, commenting that such behavior was protocol during arrest. 

· Northeastern University has also made another big step in the wrong direction by militarizing our campuses. The Semi-Automatic rifle initiative, backed by Ruben Galindo, Sr. Director of Public Safety, Deputy Chief of Police, was passed, even with intense disapproval from Northeastern's student body.

Northeastern University not only allows this behavior from NUPD, but also enables and supports it. There is no system of accountability for NUPD's actions. Northeastern University is to blame for this lack of concern for student safety, and so is the system of policing that has permeated every level of our society, within and outside of campus. NUPD, and police in general, feel righteous in the crimes they commit against the communities they are meant to protect and are not held accountable for them. Therefore, the militarization and increase in law enforcement will always mean a decrease in the safety of the student body. The answer to violence on campus is not to arm officers who already inflict violence on students and community members. 

NUPD's misuse of power goes beyond the Northeastern University campus. They have negatively impacted our surrounding community in several ways, violently abusing their power upon residents of Roxbury and other marginalized Boston communities. The following are a few examples of NUPD's violent interactions with individuals in neighborhoods surrounding Northeastern's campus. 

· In November 2020, two plainclothes NUPD officers profiled a 13-year-old child in Roxbury, throwing him to the ground and kneeling on his back before arresting him, as shown in a video posted on Twitter. An article from Liberation News adds that "This is not the first time NUPD has committed a racially motivated attack. In 2017, two Black students were crossing campus at night when they were racially profiled and assaulted by NUPD officers. Later that same year, an intoxicated woman was threatened when two police officers reached for their guns while interacting with her on Massachusetts Avenue. The NUPD equips large pickup trucks with ramming bars and employs officers carrying handguns." 

Northeastern University and its militarization and expansion of our campus sounds familiar now, no? Taking land that does not belong to them by force, then allowing a law enforcement group with access to firearms to patrol the area does not sound like Northeastern is doing what is best for the community. At the core of Northeastern's policy is expansionism, greed, and entitlement, and NUPD is a tool to achieve this. NUPD's clear violent bias regarding who is and isn't a threat puts the already small group of BIPOC students at Northeastern University at an even larger risk, as well as the BIPOC community in Northeastern's surrounding neighborhoods.

· During a Black Lives Matter protest in Spring 2020, NUPD worked with BPD to brutally assault and threaten protesters. From a Huntington News article:

The footage also shows a Northeastern University Police Department, or NUPD, officer talking with BPD officers in a video where an off-screen voice says, “start spraying the [expletive].” ...Shannon Nargi, a Northeastern spokesperson, noted in an email statement that NUPD officers occasionally work in partnership with the BPD to help with larger events....In one video, a BPD officer tells his colleague that he was hitting protestors with his police cruiser at Boston Common. After his colleague warns him that the body-camera is turned on, the first officer denies hitting people. Northeastern officials reviewing the videos have not found evidence of NUPD officers committing offenses. Despite cries for transparency, the Boston Police Department has not released the entirety of the body-cam footage.” The BLM protests were some of the most important protests in American history, so it surprises no one that law enforcement was on the wrong side of them. It was reported that during these instances of police abusing their power, NUPD was reportedly uninvolved, but the article continues to state that not all body-cam footage was released. It goes without saying that this dishonesty, this lack of straightforwardness is for a reason. If BPD and NUPD do not want to get caught, they won't. Unless they make a mistake and leave their body cameras on when threatening to run protestors over.

· In July 2023, an NUPD vehicle ran over a woman in Roxbury. According to WHDH: 

"BOSTON (WHDH) - Newly-released surveillance video shows the moment a Northeastern university police cruiser hit a pedestrian in Boston earlier this year. The incident happened in July at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. In new video, a woman can be seen being knocked over by the impact. She was subsequently taken to Boston Medical Center for treatment. Police said the vehicle was being driven by a mechanic at the time of the crash — not an officer. Since the driver of the NUPD vehicle was an NUPD mechanic, public reporting of the incident is not required under the log’s exclusion of maintenance calls. The university did not mention the incident on its website or any of its social media platforms, despite recent efforts to increase department transparency." Northeastern law enforcement has profiled, assaulted, and falsely arrested many people over the past few years. It's clear that they abuse the resources they have. But on the other side of this same coin, they are also incredibly careless with these resources. They allowed a Northeastern University mechanic to use an NUPD vehicle, which resulted in a woman being hit. What is interesting here is their justification for not reporting the incident. Regardless of who was in the car at the time the woman was hit, the woman was still hit by the university vehicle and sent to the hospital. The refusal to acknowledge any wrongdoing is what has and continues to wither away Northeastern University and NUPD's trust in our community. 

· Northeastern hired an officer with five complaints against him. Northeastern University has not responded to a request for comment confirming whether the university still employs the mentioned officers (list of officers can be found at the end of the article), or regarding further information about the complaints. This is yet another example of the Northeastern administration ignoring its community's concerns over issues related to NUPD, revealing that NUPD lacks a functioning system of accountability. 

Ruben Galindo | Sr. Director of Public Safety, Deputy Chief of Police

· Manhandled pro-Palestine protesters. 

· Repeatedly threatened students for peacefully expressing support for Palestine.

​· Supported the semi-automatic rifle initiative.

· Tore down community Nakba Day memorial for children killed by the IOF in Palestine.

· Supports oppression, militarization, and demoralizing students from using their voices on campus.

Jason Grueter | NUPD20007

· Two reports of bias on basis of gender while on force. 

6-29 day suspension for both of his complaints.

James Witzgall | DA2022-002

(No photo available)

· Five allegations of conduct unbecoming prior to joining NUPD. Received a 1-5 day suspension for all complaints. NUPD still hired him.

Brenda Zirpolo | NUPDI21008

· Allegation of alcohol and drug abuse while on force.

6-29 day suspension.

Mark Washington | University Police Sergeant | #50

· Reports of breaking a student’s arm.

· Assaulting peaceful student protesters.

Ryan Janusz | #91

· Threatening to arrest community members for bringing supplies to students in encampment

· Referred to the Palestine memorial as a "mess" before tearing it down.

· Stealing student belongings at encampment.

As a community member, we are calling on you to help us hold NUPD, and by affiliation, BPD accountable for their harmful actions toward our greater Boston community. 

1. REMEMBER: We keep us safe. We do not need a system created to silence us to protect us. We keep us safe means we show up for one another. Get to know your neighbors. Get to know your communities. Make connections with those around you to foster safety in our communities. We need to unlearn what we have been taught about the police being our friends--they are only the friends of the privileged elite who wish to maintain the status quo systems of oppression. 

2. DON’T CALL THE COPS: Many resources exist as alternatives to calling 911. Using these resources could save a life. For a list of alternatives, please press the button below.

We are stronger together. And we will not stop until we see disclosure, divestment, denouncement, and ALL COPS OFF COLLEGE CAMPUSES.

WORK CITED:

HFP's statement on encampment and post-encampment arrests https://www.instagram.com/p/C6Y22TJpc6l/?img_index=1

NUPD promising not to arrest Zionist counter-protesters https://x.com/arsonatdennys/status/1784331133561242014

Northeastern's statement on shutting down encampment https://x.com/northeastern/status/1784260724207817152?s=57

Zionist counter-protester threatening to shoot anti-genocide protesters https://x.com/makailaaa/status/1784225302165557268?s=61

NUPD destroying Nakba Memorial https://www.instagram.com/p/C7DLWLXp8P1/?img_index=1

Initiative to give NUPD semi-automatic rifles https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2015/12/09/northeastern-police-semiautomatic-rifles/

NUPD threatening graduate student organizers https://huntnewsnu.com/71722/campus/northeastern-graduate-students-file-federal-charges-against-northeastern-as-intimidation-efforts-to-interfere-with-graduate-union-continue/

Semiautomatic rifles https://huntnewsnu.com/71722/campus/northeastern-graduate-students-file-federal-charges-against-northeastern-as-intimidation-efforts-to-interfere-with-graduate-union-continue/ + https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55dd25a9e4b09a5c0645642f/t/567423fba12f44b15d8584fe/1450451963650/Huntington+News+-+NUPD+Rifles.pdf

Northeastern hires cop with five complaints against him https://huntnewsnu.com/71915/campus/three-northeastern-police-officers-receive-misconduct-complaints-new-state-data-show/

Northeastern Police Predatory Remarks toward students during encampment arrests https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/from-boston-to-palestine-student-encampments-began-in-peace-and-ended-in-handcuffs/

NUPD brutalizing 13yo https://www.liberationnews.org/northeastern-university-police-profile-and-brutalize-13-year-old-in-boston/

NUPD against BLM https://huntnewsnu.com/64535/campus/nupd-officer-present-in-controversial-footage-of-bpd-officers-at-black-lives-matter-protest/ 

NUPD vehicle hitting a pedestrian https://whdh.com/news/surveillance-video-shows-northeastern-university-police-cruiser-hit-pedestrian-in-boston/

Learn More: the Deadly Exchange and BPD's direct implementation of violent policies

BPD implementing racist, wasteful profiling methods into Boston Logan airport following Israel's example https://deadlyexchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Deadly-Exchange-Report.pdf

Starting in 2002, hundreds of Boston police and NUPD have gone to Israel for trainings to implement invasive surveillance, blatant racial profiling, and repressive force against dissent https://jvp-boston.org/end-the-deadly-exchange

Mayor Wu has BPD arrest non-violent protestors demanding an end to the deadly exchange https://www.instagram.com/jvpboston/p/C1-aq0OuQFH/?img_index=9

The Deadly Exchange Explained https://deadlyexchange.org/

How organizing has ended some Deadly Exchange programs in U.S. States https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/12/how-the-us-and-israel-exchange-tactics-in-violence-and-control