UNC School of Law students hold 'die-in' for Michael Brown

Protestors laid on the steps of UNC’s School of Law on Thursday in solidarity with the national “Black Lives Matter” movement.

For four and a half minutes, protestors remained silent and motionless to represent the four and a half hours that Michael Brown’s body laid in the street in Ferguson, Mo. after he was shot by a police officer.

The die-in, hosted by The Black Law Students Association, protested racial bias in the police force and the law community.

Joseph Bishop, the president of the BLSA, read nine demands as protesters held signs that read, “Black and Brown Lives Matter,” across their chests.

“I want you to realize and understand that this is not just a Ferguson problem,” said Bishop to the crowd.

After the deaths of both Michael Brown and Eric Garner received national attention this summer, Bishop said he wanted the protest to illuminate the ongoing issues of systematic racism in the nation’s judicial system and police force.

The demands included calls for the assignment of a special prosecutor to every case where a police officer uses deadly force, for a more representative police force and for action by Congress to address racial profiling.

Llogan Walters, a third-year law student, said she thought the call for congressional action was especially poignant.

“The legislature can make a huge impact on the way that even local and state communities react to situations like this,” she said. “It might take action from a higher level to force the judicial system to reexamine itself.”

Allen Buansi, a third-year law student and former president of BLSA, participated in the die-in and said he can relate personally to the cause.

“This particular event I guess is close for me because this was me about four or five years ago,” he said.

He said he had an encounter with Chapel Hill police where he felt he was unfairly targeted.

“It’s just — what happened to Michael Brown and Eric Garner — is just a reminder of how that situation could have turned out for me at that time.”

Walters said it made sense for law students to come together around this issue.

“As the future legal community, it means a lot that we show we care about justice, which is what many of us plan to do with our lives: to fight for justice,” she said.

As a future civil rights lawyer, Buansi said he thinks it’s important to continue to put pressure on elected officials to see change.

“To keep the discourse going, I would encourage people who care about this issue to write periodically to their city councilman as well as to their representatives in Congress,” Buansi said.

Walters said, as the national spotlight begins to ignore these issues, it is on every individual to stand up.

“It’s on us to remind ourselves every day that this is a real issue. It is affecting real people,” Walters said. “That people are dying and that we’re the only ones who are out there and able to step up.”

university@dailytarheel.com