After weeks of civil unrest in Missouri and the killing of Michael Brown, some Ball State students are preparing to voice their opinions on past shootings by police officers.
Nathaniel Thomas, junior directing major and president of the Ball State Ethnic Theater Alliance, is organizing a peaceful rally to protest on Sunday.
“It’s an issue that needs to be talked about,” Thomas said. “It’s an issue that needs awareness and the attention.”
Thomas said motivation to organize came as he heard students asking if the Ball State community was going to do anything in light of the recent events. Instead of just protesting what happened in Ferguson, Thomas said the ETA rally will take on a wider issue.
“Some people think that they’re just protesting because Mike Brown was shot and killed; some people think they’re protesting because police are using heavy arms against people who are unarmed,” he said. “We are focusing on the biggest issue of all: We don’t want our police officers, you know, shooting to kill.”
After taking the initiative to organize the protest and getting permission from the Student Services Offices, Thomas said Sunday’s event isn’t just reactionary.
“In the Ethnic Theater Alliance, it’s more than [reactionary] whenever situations take place to use our rights as students — as Americans — to protest peacefully, appropriately and to get a positive outcome so that our student body can exercise their rights and know there is a student organization that lets them do just that,” he said.
Exercising rights is a responsibility for college students, Thomas said.
“I believe that many of our students live in the bubble of Ball State University. ... Sometimes we forget that once you’re in college, you become an adult and there are a lot of things that come with being an adult,” he said. “It’s in our best interest that we pop our bubble of Ball State and look at what’s going on in the world and we stay active and we stay present.”
The protest is set to begin at 3 p.m. and will start at the Quad. From there, participants will march to LaFollette Field where a moment of silence will commence. Then, balloons will be released to honor those killed.
Organizations involved include Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Call to Action, and the Ethnic Theater Alliance.
The local NAACP will also be speaking at the protest and will feature words from the regional chapter, Thomas said.
The protest's Facebook page can be found here.
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