In His Own Home (Dir. Malini Johar Schueller & Luce Capco Lincoln):
On March 3, 2010, campus police at the University of Florida, responding to a 911 call from a neighbor and colleague who heard screaming next door, broke into Ghanaian doctoral student, Kofi Adu-Brempong’s campus housing apartment. The neighbor was apparently fearful of Kofi, who had sent paranoid e-mails to his colleagues in the Geography department. Despite his assurances that he was okay, members of the Critical Incident Response Team, armed with assault rifles, forcibly entered his apartment, and within seven seconds, shot the unarmed and disabled man in the face. Kofi, who sustained multiple injuries to his face and spine, was taken to the hospital where he was guarded 24/7, his body tied to the bed, his legs shackled together when going to the bathroom, and charged with resisting arrest. While student protests led the university administration to drop the charges, the officer who shot Kofi, and who had, in the past, repeatedly cruised through town, throwing eggs at black neighborhoods in Gainesville, continues to serve in the university police department.
In His Own Home suggests that Kofi’s shooting not only repeats a familiar pattern of police brutality against Blacks, but also speaks to the alarming rise of campus militarization. Reflecting the national obsession with terror and security, and boosted by Virginia Tech, campuses nationwide are geared to dealing with the threat of unpredictable violence, aka, “terror.” Meanwhile, disrespectful students are tasered and minor disturbances are attended to by SWAT-like teams. The recent tragic death of eighteen year old Everette Howard, subsequent to being tasered by the University of Cincinnati campus police, attests to the dangers of a militarized campus security. Unfortunately, the University of Florida’s use of Margolis and Healy after Kofi’s shooting, consultants who rose to prominence after Virginia Tech, and who tout expertise in teaching Israelis tactics in dealing with violence, demonstrated the preoccupation with terror and a disinterest in questions of police brutality and race. Although the case has shocked students at the University of Florida and protesters have held several rallies to bring attention to the shooting, the case remains a local incident and has received virtually no coverage outside Florida.
