**VIDEO COMING SOON**
LAST NIGHT, a group of about twenty or so students shut down a “cops and robbers” themed date function at the Hall, a fraternity on campus. This came after about an hour of confrontation between the students and partygoers, culminating in the frat calling the police on the students, on the grounds of trespassing. The members of the frat wore orange jumpsuits, with bandanas tied around their heads, chains, and tattoos drawn on their arms. These “costumes”... make a joke of mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex, systems that disproportionately brutalize people of color.
The predominantly white members of this fraternity got to take their costumes off at the end of the night, people trapped in the prison system do not. The women wore “sexy” cop outfits complete with hats and badges, some inexplicably had tear drop tattoos drawn on their face. Historically, the police have justified violence against people of color in the name of protecting white women, and in wearing these costumes, these women made a joke of that legacy of violence.
During confrontations with people at the party, the majority of partygoers asserted that they had no intention of “offending or hurting anyone.” It’s this kind of willful ignorance that allows white supremacy to continue. After a summer of terror and violence instigated by white supremacist groups in Charlottesville, it’s at the very least disappointing that members of the UVA community would so willing to make a joke of systems that kill and brutalize marginalized communities.
