More than 100 people gathered for a vigil for Mike Brown on Wednesday night at the University of California, San Diego’s Silent Tree sculpture — a longstanding symbol of free speech and assembly on the campus.
Brown, 18, was fatally shot two weeks ago in an altercation with Ferguson, Mo. police that has sparked protests across the country. His supporters emphasized that Brown was unarmed and surrendering when he was shot by an officer, while police maintained that he was suspected of a robbery and reached for an officer’s weapon.
The vigil also memorialized Ezell Ford, a mentally ill man whose family say he was complying with officers when he was shot by the Los Angeles Police Department last week, and Eric Garner, who, witnesses say, was killed when he was put in an chokehold by the New York City Police Department.
UCSD students and staff, as well as other members of the community, were in attendance at the vigil, the second in San Diego after last week’s National Moment of Silence event in City Heights.
Attendees stood around Silent Tree and shared personal experiences with the police and racial profiling. After the speeches, attendees were encouraged to leave notes and chalk drawings at the vigil site.
Jorge Mariscal, professor of Spanish literature at UCSD, said the vigil was a way to bring national events to a campus that’s often separated from issues that affect communities of color and working class communities
“The event tonight shows that the nation is sick,” Mariscal said. “It’s suffering from a lot of old diseases like racism and exploitation of working people, but there’s some new diseases and they’re even more vicious than they were in the 1960s.”
Mariko Kuga and Gracie Uriarte, fourth year students at UCSD’s Thurgood Marshall College, helped organize the vigil to allow people a communal space.
“It’s a healing process,” Kuga said. “It’s important to show solidarity even if it’s across the country.”
Uriarte added that she hopes attendees will support Ferguson and other similar towns after they leave the vigil.
“I would hope students walk away tonight with a sense of urgency,” Uriarte said. “They can send letters of support to the families and join organizations like the Dream Defenders, and other organizations that are doing work on the ground in Ferguson and in other places.”
On the day of the vigil, St. Louis police sparked more outrage on social media with the news that two officers shot and killed Kajieme Powell for robbing a convenience store. A cell phone video of Powell’s shooting was released on Wednesday, showing the man, whom neighbors say was mentally ill, shouting, “Shoot me!”
