Junior writing major Phelicia Ball said it is important for people to become educated about the fact that we live in a society where racism is embedded into everything — including educational systems and the police force.

Ball said hearing from the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, two unarmed black males who were fatally shot by a neighborhood watch coordinator and a police officer, respectively, could shed light on police brutality in the United States.

Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Mike Brown, and Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, will participate in a panel discussion entitled “(In)Justice For All” on Oct. 28 in Goldstein Auditorium.

Free tickets for the discussion were available to Syracuse University and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students, faculty and staff on Wednesday at 9 a.m. in Goldstein Auditorium. More than 25 students, including Ball, were waiting for the tickets minutes before they went on sale.

There were still tickets available as of 4:55 p.m. on Wednesday. The Schine Box Office closed at 5 p.m.

“I think it’s important to hear from them personally since it is a lived experience,” Ball said. “And I think that because it’s not as affluent in the media, a lot of people don’t even actually know about it.”

Ball recalled a class in which her professor asked who heard about the death of Mike Brown, and one student did not raise her hand, which Ball said she thought was odd.

“I think a lot of people don’t know what it entails for all of us. It affects every single one of us in terms of — I would say that a lot of people don’t know that race is so embedded in different institutions that affect all of us, so I think it’s just really important,” Ball said.

The panel, which is sponsored by the National Pan Hellenic Council (NPHC) of SU, will mark the first time McSpadden and Fulton have taken part in such an event, according to an SU News release. The NPHC is a council made up of nine historically black Greek life organizations.

The panel will also feature National Bar Association President Benjamin Crump, CNN legal analyst Sonny Hostin, CNN news anchor Fredricka Whitfield and Department of Public Safety Chief Bobby Maldonado, according to the release.

DPS started a trial program for the use of body cameras last year following the death of Mike Brown under the leadership of then-Chief Tony Callisto. Every armed public safety officer at SU began wearing body cameras on Oct. 1.

Maldonado said the program will help foster good relations between DPS and the SU community, especially in light of events that have sparked controversy amongst law enforcement and the public.

Ball said she thinks DPS’s body camera program is a good idea because a lot of police are simply getting suspended rather than getting in bigger trouble for controversial encounters with civilians. She added that having a video to serve as evidence for a police encounter could help the situation, even though in past situations the videos have not really done anything in cases against officers.

Ball said it is important to understand that we live in a society that is upheld through white supremacy, she said, and race is embedded into a lot of institutions, even if some people do not see it face-to-face.

“Even if you’re not a person of color, it still affects our community as a whole because as a society, we all have to work together and come together no matter what our race is and understand the effects of police brutality on colored people,” Ball said.

Published on October 14, 2015 at 6:13 pm

Contact Alexa: atorrens@syr.edu