Lang
6/5/20
A labor union representing more than 2,000 graduate student workers at the University of Iowa is calling for the school to cut ties with Iowa City Police and the Iowa State Patrol.
COGS, the Committee to Organize Graduate Students, is also calling for UI Police to be disarmed.
The statement comes after Iowa City Police and Iowa State Patrol troopers fired flash bangs and tear gas at protesters who were making their way to Interstate 80 on North Dubuque Street Wednesday night. A news release notes many of the protesters were UI students, and some were members of COGS. COGS says the ICPD and State Patrol “must be reformed and demilitarized, with budgets reallocated to social programs.”
The COGS Coordinating Committee says it’s calling upon the UI to emphatically denounce Wednesday night’s events and to cut all ties to the ICPD and State Patrol immediately, especially in the form of economic support. It also calls for the disarmament of the UI Department of Public safety “to ensure that no such abuses of power will occur against students or employees on campus.”
The UI says it is reviewing the situation.
