October 16, 2019
Page 5
Campus Police
to Keep Guns
C ontinued from f ront
like to go through this,” she said.
“I know the decision’s been made,
and there’s nothing we can do,
but I pray that one day you guys
change your mind, hopefully
sooner than later so this doesn’t
happen to anyone else.”
Olivia Pace, a PSU graduate
who said she’s been calling for
campus police to be disarmed
for more than five years, told the
board she was “disgusted” by the
decision.
“I still have to be here,” Pace
said. She called the interim presi-
dent’s action to allow campus cops
to continue to carry guns “unpop-
ular, undemocratic and racist.”
Pace said she did not condone
Percy’s safety plan and said arm-
ing campus police will only lead
to more tragedy.
“Jason Washington was just
a black man trying to break up
a fight involving a firearm. He
was not a threat, he wasn’t doing
anything wrong, and he was still
killed by the police,” she said.
“The right we have to live and
breathe is extinguished with your
decision. The decision to arm se-
curity will be paid in black lives.”
Pace then called for a boycott
of the university.
“This decision is a declaration
of war,” she said. “You have de-
clared war on your students and
from this moment on we will use
every fiber of our being to letting
the world know: Do not come
here.”
As the meeting broke up, angry
students yelled, “Shame! Shame!
This is a board of hypocrites! No
justice, no peace! Blood on your
hands! Boycott PSU!”
Members of the media then
went to a small room where Per-
cy answered questions about the
decision to allow guns on campus.
The first question concerned calls
for a boycott.
“I’m very worried about that,”
Percy said. “I’m very sorry about
the death of Jason Washington
and what we’re trying to do a lot
here is create an inclusive campus
that respects diversity. We think in
this day and age that policing in a
large urban campus is very com-
plex and requires a lot of different
approaches.”
b everly C orbell /
t he p ortland o bserver
Portland State University Interim
President Stephen Percy holds a
brief news conference Thursday
to answer questions on the
school’s new safety plan.
photo by
The plan calls for more trans-
parency and strengthening of the
University Public Safety Commit-
tee, continued use of firearms and
body cameras by some officers,
more training for officers, better
building security (including elec-
tronic access pads), hiring four
more unarmed officers, and better
collaboration with mental health
experts in responding to crisis sit-
uations.