Policing the Campus | A Call for Support of Esteemed Land Grant Studies Professor
Moderator’s Note: This important petition was posted by La
Jicarita, An Online Magazine of Environmental Politics from New Mexico
on July 1. It is addressed to Robert G. Frank as the President of the
University of New Mexico and concerns the case of Associate Professor David
Correia who is being threatened with termination for his involvement in
peaceful activism as part of a widening social movement in Albuquerque against
police brutality and racial profiling.
Professor
Correia is the author of a widely praised book Properties
of Violence (University of Geirgia Press, 2013) dealing with the
slippery politics of property law and New Mexico land grants. Professor Correia
has several noteworthy publications and is quickly developing a solid reputation
as a world-class scholar with important contributions to environmental history,
political ecology, and legal (property) history – particularly as applied to the
convoluted history of New Mexico land grants.
I
urge all my followers and colleagues to join me in signing the Change.org
petition. Please use the link below, which is provided courtesy of La Jicarita.
Peaceful
activism and academic freedom
PETITION
IS ADDRESSED TO UNM PRESIDENT
La Jicarita | Rio del Pueblo/Embudo, NM |
July 1, 2014
Editor’s
note: This petition, written by
graduate students Rachel Levitt (rachel_237@hotmail.com) and Nick
Estes (wicasatanka@gmail.com) of the American Studies
Department at the University of New Mexico, is being circulated in support of
Professor David Correia. They ask that you Sign the
petition at Change.org.
Petition
to Support Professor David Correia
Robert G. Frank,
President
University of New
Mexico
Scholes Hall
Suite 144
One University of
New Mexico
Albuquerque, New
Mexico 87131-0001
Dear President Frank and the UNM Board of Regents,
We,
the students, faculty, staff, and alumni from the University of New Mexico
(UNM) and colleagues from around the world, would like to express our support
for Associate Professor of American Studies Dr. David Correia. He was arrested
June 2, 2014 with 12 others at the City of Albuquerque Office of the Mayor,
participating in a community action against rampant police violence. While
others arrested were charged with criminal trespass, Dr. Correia was charged
with a felony, “battery against a police officer.” It was this charge that
prompted a statement from the UNM administration, namely UNM President Bob
Frank, that censured Dr. Correia’s activism. By invoking the idea that the
University “will monitor” Dr. Correia’s activist “behavior,” UNM administration
implies that scholar activism is menacing. Furthermore, UNM’s statement implies
that Dr. Correia’s actions are grounds for termination by citing section “B5:
Separation from the University” of the UNM Faculty Handbook.
We
feel that the limiting and narrowing faculty’s academic freedom and freedom of
speech in this way sets a negative precedent that affects all UNM’s
constituents—faculty, students, and staff. It creates a climate of fear and
suspicion against those working towards social justice, since police violence
affects us all.
For
example, many UNM students, faculty, and staff have been increasingly embroiled
in efforts to challenge the very same police violence in Albuquerque that Dr.
Correia was protesting the night of his arrest. In addition to many other
incidents of excessive use of force, police harassment, racial profiling, and
intimidation, 40 individuals have been shot, 26 of them fatal, by law
enforcement officials in Albuquerque since 2010. As a result, the U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ) investigated the Albuquerque Police Department
(APD). Their report found that APD’s deadly use of force is not only
unconstitutional but is part of an institutional culture rather than the
behavior of a select few officers.[1] With this culture of state violence, many
have rightly called for swift and drastic changes to the oversight and behavior
of the APD.
A
significant part of Dr. Correia’s scholarship and activism points out that
police brutality is deeply rooted in historic and ongoing racist and colonial
practices that marks the poor, the homeless, people of color, and Indigenous
peoples as disposable. Dr. Correia has published numerous pieces of public
scholarship and has given a TEDx talk on the issue of police brutality in
Albuquerque. He is a noted scholar on the history of social movements in the
Southwest. It is his scholarly expertise that informs his activism, not the
other way around. Dr. Correia on multiple occasions has put his body and privileges
on the line to intervene in city politics that continue to resist DOJ
reforms—reforms that identify the need for just and accountable oversight of
APD.
Rather
than being potential grounds for termination as UNM’s official public statement
suggests, Dr. Correia’s activism, community engagement, and scholarship
addressing this violence is a testament to the kind of work that can and should
be done, and is being done, by scholars. We, the undersigned, support Dr.
Correia’s deep commitment to this kind of work. We demonstrate this support by
standing with him and the Albuquerque community at many of these demonstrations
and meetings, both physically and in spirit.
Like
Dr. Correia, we know and live with the reality that the members of the UNM
community most at risk for deportation, harassment, imprisonment, assault, and
murder by the police are the very same populations UNM claims to value and
serve. They are certainly the same populations that finance and give UNM its
unique, diverse, and dynamic identity. These populations also include many of
the faculty and graduate students in the American Studies Department.
“Diversity” and “community” are not mere buzzwords or resources for the
University: they are obligations. These obligations require standing up to injustice
even if it is met with retaliation.
We
would like to see the University of New Mexico, its President, and its Board of
Regents offer their public support for activist scholars, such as Dr. Correia,
who take the University’s commitment to diversity and community engagement
seriously. We realize we are asking the University to run risks that might
garner media attention and strongly worded letters of opposition, but it is
nothing compared to the risk so many of us run walking down the streets of Albuquerque
in the present climate of police brutality. Please join us in commending Dr.
Correia and all those working to curb ongoing police violence.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
[1] A copy of the Department of Justice Report can be
found here: http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/apd_findings_4-10-14.pdf.
As the report explains, “While officers may be required to use force
during the course of their duties, they must do so respecting constitutional
guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures. For too long,
Albuquerque officers have faced little scrutiny from their superiors in
carrying out this fundamental responsibility. Despite the efforts of many
committed individuals, external oversight is broken and has allowed the
department to remain unaccountable to the communities it serves. Based on our
investigation, we find that the department engages in a pattern or practice of
using excessive force during the course of arrests and other detentions in
violation of the Fourth Amendment and Section 14141”(p. 2).
For additional information see the following:
Official statements from University of New Mexico:
Public speeches and scholarship by Dr. Correia on police
violence in Albuquerque:
Organizations supporting Professor Correia
include:
Association of American Geographers
American Association of University Professors
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