Demonstrators Protest Non-Indictment Of NYPD Officer

Photo by Anthony DeRosa.

As part of the New Paltz Black Student Union’s social awareness campaign #NPWAKESUP, which addresses issues of police violence against minorities, student demonstrators organized once again on Monday, Dec. 8 to protest in response to the non-indictment of Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer responsible for the Staten Island chokehold death of 43-year-old Eric Garner. Taking place in the Student Union building Atrium at 12:30 p.m., students participating in the “Campus Die-In,” as it was referred as on posters promoting the event, lay motionless and silent for 15.5 minutes. The number represented the 4.5 hours Michael Brown’s body was left on the ground after his death by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri and the 11 times Eric Garner said “I can’t breathe” in the video showing the police’s struggle to arrest him that ultimately resulted in Garner’s death.