Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Editor’s note: This is a developing story and will continue to be updated with the latest available information.
The governor of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Virginia<span style="color: Red;">*</span>has ordered the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Virginia State Police to investigate the bloody arrest of Martese Johnson, a black University of Virginia student, after photos and video of the arrest went viral across social media with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>#JusticeForMartese, which later sparked a protest on campus Wednesday evening.
Johnson, 20, was injured while<span style="color: Red;">*</span>being taken into custody by Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) agents outside of the Trinity Irish Pub near “The Corner” — a collection popular bars, restaurants, cafes and bookstores near the UVA campus — March 18 around 12:45 a.m. His<span style="color: Red;">*</span>head injury required 10 stitches.
Whitney Blankenship, a 21-year-old anthropology major and Italian minor at UVA, had taken multiple classes with Johnson, who majors in Italian and media studies. She was leaving Trinity when the altercation began.
“As I was leaving Trinity, I saw (Martese)<span style="color: Red;">*</span>walking away,” Blankenship says. “I was being pushed back by people who were telling me to get back into the door because there were police. The next thing I saw was him on the ground and them putting handcuffs on him. I heard him scream, ‘I’m a UVA student’ over and over again. It just happened so fast. I didn’t even realize that it was Martese.”
Virginia ABC<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said in a statement that Johnson was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors: public intoxication and obstruction of justice.
Photo: Charlottesville Police Department
“The uniformed ABC Agents observed and approached the individual after he was refused entry to a licensed establishment,” the statement read.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“A determination was made by the agents to further detain the individual based on their observations and further questioning. In the course of an arrest being made, the arrested individual sustained injuries.”
The Charlottesville Police Department received a call about “a disorder with a large amount of people on The Corner,” according to Capt. Wendy Lewis, and arrived on the scene shortly after 1 a.m.
“We responded and dispersed the crowd with no further incidents,” Lewis says. “We ensured that medical treatment was given to the person that was arrested by ABC. He obviously had a large gash on his head.”Johnson — a member of the UVA Honor Committee , the Eta Sigma Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi and the Black Student Alliance — has no previous criminal record, according to his attorney Daniel Watkins.
“As evidenced by both his academic and extracurricular achievements, Martese is a smart young man with a bright future,” Watkins said in a statement.
Many have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>criticized the UVA administration for its delayed response to Johnson’s arrest, especially given the number of<span style="color: Red;">*</span><span style="color: Red;">*</span>Twitter users who tagged<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the university and President Teresa Sullivan’s accounts, notifying them of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a 1:08 p.m. e-mail from Black Dot — a black rights student advocacy organization — which featured a photo and video of the incident.
“I’ll get emails at 3:30 in the morning (from the university) right after something has happened saying ‘a white, female UVA student has been assaulted,’” Blankenship says. “And I think the real issue is a lot of people didn’t even know (about Martese) until 3 p.m.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>or 4 p.m.”
In her campus-wide e-mail sent at 5:12 p.m., Sullivan expressed concern about the safety of UVA’s students, adding that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>administration was working with police to promptly clarify all of the details surrounding the incident.
“The safety and security of our students will always be my primary concern, and every member of our community should feel safe from the threat of bodily harm and other forms of violence,” Sullivan said.Meanwhile, Johnson’s arrest galvanized activism by friends and strangers alike who not only took their outrage to the Internet, but to UVA’s McIntire Amphitheatre — and later<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to the streets.
This Wednesday night rally organized by Black Dot attracted at least 1,000 attendees – including Johnson.
#UVA Amphitheater where Martese Johnson rally now happening pic.twitter.com/j52bFdVJKb
— Mike Valerio (@MikeNBC12) March 19, 2015
“We are one community,” Johnson told the crowd. “We deserve to respect each other, especially in times like this.”
Joshua Kinlaw, 21, Johnson’s roommate, helped organize the rally and said that it “allowed for people to step in and voice their concerns and opinions” and work toward solutions to end the racially heated incidents not just at UVA, but around the country.
“Police brutality is a very real issue and it’s something we face,” Kinlaw says. “Literally every 28 hours, an African American loses his life as a victim to the police force, whether its justified or unjustified. That, in itself is an issue. Those are the types of things we need to be talking about and bringing to the forefront. Something needs to be done to stop it.”
Following the rally, a group of more than 150 protestors marched from the UVA campus to the Charlottesville Police Department, according to Blankenship, chanting “no justice, no peace, no racist police.”
Kinlaw, who describes his roommate as “caring, kind, uplifting and humorous,” says it was important for Johnson’s arrest to serve as more than a hashtag, which are often here for a moment but soon forgotten.
“It’s taken it happening here for people here to start recognizing that it’s happening everywhere else,” Kinlaw says. “There’s police brutality going on, and it’s going on all across the nation. Police and people with authority are abusing their power. Something needs to be done to stop this from happening. It’s not right, and justice has to be had.”
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