There were an unusual number of green shirts on campus Monday worn by students.
These students were protesting the recent shooting of Walter Scott by a North Charleston police officer. The protest was silent and did not have a central time or location on campus, but encouraged students to dress in attire that was similar to what Scott was wearing when he was shot in the back by officer Michael Slager.
Scott was pulled over for a broken taillight on April 4 and ran from the scene with Slager pursuing on foot. Slager then fired his Taser but was unable to stop Scott.
The two got in a scuffle in an empty lot where Slager said Scott reached for his Taser. Slager then fired shots at Scott, saying he feared for his life.
Video, shot by a bystander and later released, showed Scott running from Slager and being 15 to 20 feet away when Slager fired eight rounds at him. Slager has since been fired from the North Charleston police force and charged with the murder of Scott.
Members of the National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA), which organized the silent protest, were handing out name tags throughout campus that read “My name is Walter Scott” for the protest.
Participants of the protest did not just include members of NBLSA, but members of the undergraduate community as well.
The purpose of the protest was to raise awareness about the killing of Scott as well as other recent issues of police brutality and shootings. Protesters also want this protest to be a starting point for the discussion of racial inequality that still exists.
“The protest aims to raise awareness of the tragic killing of Mr. Scott, and to apply pressure on law enforcement leadership to address the issue of improper use of deadly force by police and increasing tensions between officers and the citizens they are sworn to protect,” Sonia Canzater, a law student at USC and the president of USC's NBLSA chapter, said.
“We as law students cannot and will not sit idly by while the rights of Americans are infringed upon and lives are senselessly lost,” Canzater said.
The protest also stretched to the Charleston School of Law and various other law schools across the nation, where the NBLSA chapter there dressed in similar attire to silently protest the shooting.