Cornell University’s Faculty Senate has approved a resolution that would no longer allow campus police “CRIME ALERT” emails to use race as an identifier when alerting students and faculty to a crime.
Resolution 158, also titled “Regarding Crime Alerts and Race” passed last week after being introduced earlier in February, Fox News reported on Monday. The resolution stated it sought to end the “false association of Blackness with criminality” and stop the justification of the “violent policing of Black people.”
Cornell faculty approves resolution removing race from crime alerts https://t.co/ih7derBGcF
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“Whereas, the knowledge that a crime may have been committed by a Black man does not make CRIME ALERT recipients any safer, but instead endangers Black people in the community, reinforcing the common phenomenon of violence against Black people on the grounds that they look like suspected criminals,” the resolution read in part.
One background document for the resolution said that 75% of suspects were identified as black and male, according to Fox.
The document also suggested that some of the alerts were “too vague” and could lead to targeting of other black students on campus. (RELATED: REPORT: Investigation Clears Cafeteria Worker At Elite College Smeared As Racist By Student, But Now She Has Trouble Finding A Job)
Bill Jacobson, a Cornell law professor, told Fox News that the sponsors of the bill “never demonstrated a causal connection” between alerts and lowered risk, and that the purpose of the descriptions was to “narrow the range of potential suspects.”
“The more identifying features, the less likely that negative stereotypes would play a role,” Jacobson said.
In March, professors at the university protested a degree program with China’s Peking University over concerns of human rights and interference with the academic programs. The proposal was eventually rejected early in April, according to the Cornell Sun.