By Nigel Lopez
Riverside City College students received a notification at 4:17 p.m. on May 28 to shelter in place due to an incident. It was a repeat of April 18, 2023, when a man with a knife was seen on campus, only much worse.
Last time the man with a knife had been spotted around 8 a.m. and students didn’t receive a notification until 9:36 a.m.
Similarly, eight years ago there was a shooting at White Park across Riverside Community College District Office. Staff, faculty and administrators were informed an hour later but students were never notified.
May 28, an hour after the first notification, a second chilling text message from Riverside Community College District Urgent Alert system was sent out saying, “PD is searching for a suspect with a gun. Shelter-in-place remains.”
Instructors in person and on social media have expressed their fears of the worst case scenario, whether it would be them or their students dying at the hands of a mass shooter or at the hands of the police.
Faculty, instructors, and students were still on campus as the police started evacuating building-by-building according to The Press-Enterprise.
In a mass email RCC President Claire Oliveros said there was a report of a male who reportedly had a gun.
RCC English instructor Robert Hyers posted on his instagram story expressing his fears in the moment as police pointed their rifles at instructors and students in search of a gunman.
“There was no description to go on,” Hyers said. “No gunman was found. The only people who definitely had guns were the RPD pointing them at my students and me. RPD made our campus more dangerous for our marginalized students. I am still traumatized by this experience.”
There were three police departments on Riverside City College campus; Riverside Community College District Safety and Police Department, Riverside Police Department, and Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Fears of police violence are not unfounded as police brutality is common, relevant, and has recently targeted students and instructors.
Just last month April 4, The Press-Enterprise reported an incident where a Riverside Police officer shot and killed a domestic abuse suspect wielding a knife on 4th and Chestnut street. While there is no defense for domestic abuse there is no reason why our police should execute suspects on house calls.
According to the Daily Journal, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has recently settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $7.5 million where a man died in their custody.
In 2020, Ernie Serrano of Jurupa Valley died while in sheriff’s custody. No deputies were charged with his death.
An Article by Rolling Stone goes into detail on police crackdowns against Pro-Palestine protesters in Colleges and Universities and shows the true nature of policing. Beating down instructors and students alike for criticizing a foreign country: Israel.
A Washington Post investigation has found that during 2010-2020 Riverside City has spent $77 million on police misconduct: $63 million on excessive force and $12 million on false arrests.
It took until 6:10 p.m. for the all clear to be sent out to students through the RCCD Urgent Alert system. Which was almost two full hours of an unsure and stressful situation.
After all of that no gunman was found and no description of the gunman was ever released.
The handling of the college’s lockdown wasn’t much better than the one on April 18, 2023, because the police response itself, was more dangerous than the alleged incident. All of which contributes to the worsening of our collective mental health issues.
Photo by @rcc_student_support_group
