San Diego State Students Protest After Video of On-Campus Arrest

Students at San Diego State University protested yesterday after footage of the forceful on-campus arrest of a black man was posted to social media.

The video shows a struggle as the police try to arrest the man, eventually bringing him to the ground. At points in the video, the man yells, “You’re breaking my arm, you’re going to break my arm,” and, “You’re breaking my back.”

Hours after the arrest, the SDSU police department’s interim chief, Joshua Mays, addressed students at Manchester Hall, taking questions.

Mays said police responded to reports that a non-student had jumped a construction fence on campus and appeared to be on drugs. He said the man was taken to the local jail uninjured, where police booked him for resisting arrest and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

PART 1 — and this is the kind of authority that is circulating on San Diego State University’s campus.

A video posted by |BRIA|NNA (@sobriab) on

PART 2 — The man was walking around campus and was by Cal Coast where Chance the rapper is performing tonight and a staff asked him if he was with the group like chance’s ppl and he didn’t answer so he asked him to leave serval times according to him. A security guard came over the man wouldn’t talk to her either. So I guess they called campus PD and when campus PD came he was standing on the balcony area of the student union outside of Starbucks with his back turned towards them. They asked him to sit down he told them no ( that’s his right since he wasn’t under arrest). Five officers began to tackle him to the ground while on the ground he told the officers that they were hurting him and even said he couldn’t breath, they arrested him and he’s in police custody. When a witness asked what was he arrested for he was told because the man was suspected of being under the influence. We’re not sure if he is a student here or not.

A video posted by |BRIA|NNA (@sobriab) on

The footage disturbed some students, who silently protested outside of Manchester Hall yesterday, lining up and raising their fists in the air.

Others reacted to the incident on Twitter under the hashtag #BlackUnderAttackSDSU, including black student groups at nearby California State University Fullerton, who called the footage “completely unacceptable.”

The university quickly promised to review the arrest, saying it would also be reaching out to campus groups to talk.