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<font size=3>Black Studies Professor Arrested<br>
Arrest allegedly linked to racial profiling<br>
by
<a href="http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/breaking//cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?search=by Jessica Jones">
Jessica Jones</a>, staff writer <br>
October 26, 2005 05:23 PM <br><br>
San Francisco State professor Antwi Akom was arrested Tuesday night and
placed in county jail after going into his campus office. He was released
earlier this evening. <br><br>
Many people are alleging the incident to be based on racial profiling.
<br><br>
“I think that [the officers] are racist pigs,” said Matthew Shenoda a
lecturer the Ethnic Studies department, who has been talking to
Akom.“It’s a really clear cut case of racial profiling.”<br><br>
Campus police refused to comment on the incident.<br><br>
While in jail, he spoke with numerous friends and colleagues in the
Ethnic Studies Department to tell them what happened. Among them was
Shenoda, his teaching assistant Ashley Moore, and Dean of Ethnic Studies
Kenneth Monteiro. According to their account, Akom came to campus around
10 p.m. Tuesday evening to pick up a book he needed for teaching his
class. <br><br>
When he arrived in the front of the Ethnic Studies building (which is
where his office is located), he was approached by a security guard who
asked him what he was doing here. Akom reportedly told the security guard
he was a professor and he was going into his office. He then proceeded to
go inside.<br><br>
“When he came out, there was a white cop to meet him and told him to put
his hands behind his back,” said Shenoda.<br><br>
Akom said the unidentified campus police officer was called by the
security guard while he was inside of his office getting the book. He
said he asked the officer why he was getting arrested, but the officer
had no answer. <br><br>
“The officer didn’t tell him anything. It wasn’t until he was arrested
that they told him he had assaulted a police officer,” said Moore, an SF
State student.<br><br>
The two began to argue and the officer then called two more police
officers for backup. Moore said the three officers threw Akom to the
ground and handcuffed him. During that process, one of them hit their
face against his knee.<br><br>
Akom is being charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police
officer, which are both felonies. <br><br>
His bail was set at $51,000 and he was liable to be in jail for up to 72
hours. The San Francisco Police Department did not return calls for
comment.<br><br>
While Akom was getting the book out of his office, and later placed under
arrest, his two small children were sleeping in the back of his car that
was parked behind the Ethnic Studies Building. <br><br>
Shenoda said Akom called him to come and pick up the children while he
was being taken to the police station.<br><br>
“Nobody had checked on the kids. When I got there to pick them up they
were crying,” Shenoda said.<br><br>
The Black Studies department held a gathering today to discuss what
happened to the professor.<br><br>
“Last night there was an altercation between one of our family members
and a police officer on this campus,” said Kenneth Monteiro, the acting
Dean of Ethnic Studies. <br><br>
He said the University wrote a letter urging the San Francisco Police
Department to release Akom as soon as possible. The letter was signed by
SF State Chief of Police Kimberly Wible.<br><br>
“We’re all in support of Antwi getting out of prison,” said Dorthy
Tsuruta, the chair of the Africana department, before he was released.
“That’s my main concern right now. And then we’ve got to start doing some
education on all the implication of the situation.”<br><br>
The University President, Provost and Public Affairs office were not
available for questioning.<br><br>
The last time there was an incident of police brutality with racial
allegations was when a 15-year-old African American boy was slammed to
the ground by San Francisco State police officers in
<a href="http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/life/001402.html">2004</a>. The
June Jordan High School for Equity student was on SF State's campus
having lunch with his fellow classmates when the campus police assaulted
him because they thought he had been involved in a previous conflict.
<br><br>
The officers slammed the student’s head into the pavement several times
and then put him on his back to arrest him. The student was later found
innocent and no charges were filed against him. The incident sparked a
protest and walk out by the high school students and SF students against
police brutality.<br><br>
Akom is a tall, dark-skinned, African American male with long
locks.<br><br>
“What’s interesting is that he is living proof of what we teach in ethnic
studies,” said Shenoda. “At the end of the day you can have all the
credentials in the world and it doesn’t matter.”<br><br>
Moore thinks this is a blatent case of racism that is apparent in all
aspects of our society.<br><br>
“It’s obvious what happened,” she said. “He was a black man in a place he
wasn’t “supposed to be.’”<br><br>
<br>
» E-mail Jessica Jones @
<a href="mailto:jjo19@sfsu.edu">jjo19@sfsu.edu</a> <br><br>
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