Crime & Safety Barnard Suspends Campus Police For Profiling Black Student The university launched an independent investigation into an incident where a black student was pinned to a table in Barnard's library. Reply Video of a black student being pinned down by Barnard College police has been seen more than 2 million times. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images) MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY — The Barnard College campus police officers involved in racially profiling a black student and pinning him down in the campus library have been suspended and an independent investigation into the confrontation has been launched, Barnard and Columbia University officials announced. Video of the student being pinned to a table and surrounded by campus police Thursday night in Barnard's Millstein Center has been viewed more than 2 million times on social media and forced school officials to hold listening sessions following a wave of outrage and protest. Barnard College President Sian Leah Beilock said in a statement Monday: "The past few days have been very distressing for our entire community. The confrontation with a black male Columbia University student and several Barnard public safety officers on April 11, 2019, does not reflect the values of the College; what transpired was unacceptable and antithetical to our mission." Beilock said that a full independent investigation was launched into the confrontation between the student and campus police that will also offer a comprehensive evaluation of the school's Office of Public Safety. The school will also reevaluate how its officers are trained in regard to racial bias. "The confrontation puts into stark relief what some members of the Barnard College community, particularly people of color, have been saying about their relationship with the Office of Public Safety and the lack of trust they have in it to keep them safe,"Beilock said Monday in a statement. Alexander McNab, the Columbia University senior who was pinned by campus officers, told the Columbia Spectator that he was followed into the Millstein Center on Thursday night after passing through the Barnard gates without showing his school ID. McNab told the campus newspaper that he knows students are required to show ID after 11 p.m., but that he was frustrated by an inconsistent enforcement of the rule that disproportionately affected students of color. The senior told the campus newspaper that Thursday night was the third time he had been profiled by campus police this school year, prompting him to decline officers' requests to see his ID.<doc-sep>A viral video shows the student being pinned down on a counter by Barnard public safety officers after refusing to show his student ID. The student claims it is the third time Barnard public safety officers have confronted him. (Image: Google Maps) Several Barnard College Public Safety officers have been placed on leave after a video surfaced showing a student being pinned against a counter for not showing his student ID. Columbia University student Alexander McNab said a public safety officer followed him into Barnard’s Milstein Center around 11:30 p.m. Thursday after he declined to show his student ID at the main gates, reports Columbia Spectator. Students at Columbia and Barnard, which are partner institutions, are required to show their ID after 11 p.m. when prompted. McNab, who is black, said he was aware of the rule mandating students show their IDs but that it is arbitrarily and unequally enforced, noting white students are often not asked to show theirs. ﻿﻿﻿ The officer called for backup after McNab continued to deny his request to see his ID. A video taken by student Caroline Cutlip and posted to Facebook shows two officers pinning McNab down on a counter. “You have no right to touch me. Take your hands off me. Take your body off me. I did not touch anybody,” McNab can be heard yelling as officers ask him to go outside with them. McNab eventually takes his student ID out of his wallet, claiming the incident is the third time Barnard public safety officers have chased him down. An officer then takes his ID and walks away with it, stating he needs to verify that McNab is an “active” student. McNab then follows the officer but refuses his additional requests to take the situation outside. McNab later said he wanted to stay inside so that witnesses would be able to see the interaction. In a second video, public safety officers said they followed McNab because he ran past a public safety van and across the lawn to the building. McNab and several witnesses said he was walking at a normal pace when officers started to follow him. “When I corrected them, they started screaming at me,” said student Norah Hassan. “It was so shocking that as a student and a witness, that the people supposed to serve and protect me were pointing at me and screaming. They were trying to police the way that we were responding to them, policing our actions because we didn’t agree with them.” In the other alleged incidents he referenced in the video, McNab said he was approached by officers when he was on campus for dance practice. He said in the first incident, public safety officers requested his ID as he was leaving the building. The second time, he said he was drinking water from a fountain barefoot when officers wanted to verify he was a student and not a homeless man. Students Protest, School Officials Announce Policy Changes Barnard held a listening session Friday night with representatives from Public Safety, the deans of the college, the Furman Counseling Center, and the Office of Title IX and Equity. Columbia held a reflection session Friday evening as well. Dozens of Barnard students also held protests on campus Friday night, according to News One. Some were walking and chanting, “Public safety is not safe” and “Public Safety is anti-black.” Others stood in the lobby of a dining hall and wore signs stating, “Student! Do not pin this Negro down.” Barnard President Sian Leah Beilock sent an email to students Sunday night, indicating the officers had been placed on leave and the school would be hiring an independent investigator. The email also said the school would review training for its public safety officers and convene a Community Safety Group. The group, which will consist of students, faculty, staff and outside experts, will conduct a review of Public Safety policies and their equal enforcement and transparency. Additionally, the school is scheduled to hold its first of many inclusive community forums Tuesday evening, according to the email. It will be hosted by the Consortium for Critical Interdisciplinary Studies, in collaboration with Africana Studies, American Studies, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.<doc-sep>McNab thought about two other occasions he had been stopped by Barnard public safety officers and asked to show his ID, encounters he said were a result of racial profiling. They once demanded to see his ID as he was leaving a two-hour dance practice. Another time, he left dance practice to run — barefoot — to the bathroom, and he was stopped again because the officers assumed he was homeless.<doc-sep>
A Black college student in New York is the latest subject of excessive force by campus safety officers, and university officials have confirmed an investigation has been opened. The Columbia Daily Spectator reports officers began following Columbia University senior Alexander McNab on Thursday night after he allegedly declined to show his school ID. He'd been entering a building on the campus of Barnard College, a sister institution to the Ivy League. This happened yesterday at Barnard College. A black Columbia University student was entering the library when he was racially profiled by public safety officers. They took his ID. They pinned him down. 🎥: Caroline Cutlip pic.twitter.com/7CeUDQSuIH — Andrew Wang (@andrwwang) April 12, 2019 More authorities were called to the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning after McNab continued to ignore the officer's request. Eventually, two officers physically restrained the student on the counter of a Peet's coffee shop. McNab then obliged and showed officers his ID. After verifying it was him, one officer asked the student to walk outside. However, McNab indicated he wanted to remain inside the Milstein Center so other witnesses could watch the action unfold. However, The Columbia Daily Spectator notes officers seized McNab’s ID, saying they wanted to confirm he was an "active" student at Columbia. A tweet posted by a witness explains that while students are expected to show identification after 11 p.m., that rule is hardly enforced. "For context: Columbia students have access to Barnard libraries. After 11 p.m., students are supposed to show their IDs to public safety before entering campus. But this rule is loosely enforced and hardly followed. I have always just nodded to the officer. Nothing like this," Columbia University student Andrew Wang wrote in a separate post. Barnard College President Sian Leah Beilock released a statement following the incident. In her remarks, she apologized to McNab and said she would be taking a more active approach toward campus security. "Barnard is about academic excellence, which cannot occur without diversity and an inclusive community where everyone feels welcome and safe. Moving forward, the College has taken, and will continue to take, a number of steps toward that goal – beginning but not ending with a focus on campus security." In a separate release, Barnard College confirmed the officers in question had been placed on administrative leave as the institution works with a third-party team to investigate the ordeal. Speaking with The Columbia Daily Spectator, McNab said how the public service officers detained him was surprising, as the student only informed them he wasn't going to show them his ID. "It's like I was resisting arrest or something. It was very much like an NYPD police officer-type interaction," McNab said. The confrontation has sparked protests across campus, with students arriving in droves to condemn the officer's use of excessive force. Photos of the protest. Taken from the @bwog liveblog. pic.twitter.com/6EmGdLYYrl — Andrew Wang (@andrwwang) April 13, 2019 McNab has since detailed the taxing consequences of being the subject of this investigation, telling The Washington Post he has conducted several interviews and responded to multiple emails about being a Black man in such a compromising position. "There’s never a good time for this to happen," McNab said. "But this weekend, I had all these things to do." ​​ Morehouse College To Admit Transgender Students Beginning Next Fall White Supremacy Is More Than Just Skin Deep Georgetown University Students Believe The School Owes Reparations To Slavery Descendants