Brittany Packnett Instagram – TRIGGER WARNING. @washu, this can’t be what “Strength Through Truth” means. I don’t have the words to express how shattered my heart is that a university that just celebrated my own activism, which began in its modern form as resistance to police violence, and celebrated my endurance through precisely this kind of violent response to protest, answered current students, faculty and community the same way these same police departments answered us in Ferguson and across STL. I am shattered that the home of the Black Manifesto, where Brookings Hall sit-ins and campus encampments as recent as *5 years ago* against Racism, war, labor abuse and more were not only largely uninterrupted and allowed, but resulted in change across the university. This includes anti-ROTC and anti-Vietnam protestors, who occupied Brookings Hall in the 1968 after attempting to raid the rifle reserves on campus and more. They weren’t swept or raided from their encampment. And after the disruptive and dangerous racism from white fraternity members in Bear’s Den just last month that did not receive this kind of response, this can not be the place I once dreamed of sending my own son. Is this who you are? Because for many alumni, it stands in clear opposition to who we thought you to be. Insurrectionists and tiki torch bearers disgustingly screaming “J*ws will not r*place us” being treated better than people who know that killing over 30,000 civilians is an abomination should haunt us all. I’m not saying anything I haven’t said directly to you on multiple occasions and in email this morning. Grant amnesty for these non-violent protestors, protect first amendment protest and marginalized students, and cut partnerships with war profiteers. #WashU