A black Yale grad student took a nap in her dorm's common room, and a white woman called the cops

[turbinetree]

Non-hilarity ensues.

ALAN PYKE MAY 9, 2018, 3:54 PM

Non-hilarity ensues.


Four Yale University police officers were called to a graduate student dorm in downtown New Haven on Monday after one resident deemed another’s nap a situation worthy of dialing 911.

Lolade Siyonbola, the sleep offender, captured her uncomfortable ensuing interactions with the officers on video. Officers struggle to verify her Yale identification card, reportedly because their own security list misspelled the first-year African Studies graduate student’s name. She repeatedly points out that officers have seen her use her keys to unlock her dorm room, and tells them she feels harassed by their ongoing scrutiny of her right to be in the building where she pays to live.

The woman who rousted her from a nap and then called the cops had previously called police on a friend of hers, Siyonbola tells the officers, “because he was in the stairwell and he was black.”

https://thinkprogress.org/white-woman-calls-cops-on-black-yale-grad-student-for-crime-of-napping-in-a-common-room-10826f736ce3/

[SunSeeker]

1. K & R for exposure.

[Ellen Forradalom]

2. Dear other white women

Stop it already, dammit.

[irisblue]

36. Really

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

3. This shit needs to stop... now!! Perfect example of why wypipo need to be called the fuck out...

on their racist attitudes and other bullshit. Thanks for posting turbinetree.

[SaschaHM]

4. I went to Yale.

Sleeping in common rooms/libraries/hammocks is common. Hell, sleeping in a common room is literally the least shady shit that goes down and people look the other way on. That they sent four officers is just strange.

[MaryMagdaline]

33. Where else are you going to sleep if your roommate

Has a guy in the room?

Oh wait, that's undergrad

[EffieBlack]

5. No one had better even THINK of coming in here to try to defend this

I mean it ...

[ProudLib72]

6. Well, you see Effie, Yale is not so progressive

She had to make sure this black woman was not one of riff raff from the black community that surrounds the campus. It's school policy to keep them out. And in case you think I'm being harsh, here is an article for you about how they did everything in their power to keep a local, black alumni off their board: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/11/nyregion/union-backed-nominee-for-board-has-yale-upset.html

This was the year Bill Clinton was invited to join. He turned it down because he was aware of the local politics. Maya Lin eventually accepted the role.

Yes, I realize the article speaks about unions. Who do you suppose makes up the majority of the unions in New Haven? Just saying...

[HipChick]

12. 3..2..1....

the police were just doing their job.. ..you know that defense is coming here

[moriah]

18. I loved her "Continue" when the supervisor said that they were the police so...

... THEY had the right to say whether she was allowed to be at the university she paid for whether she "felt" she had the right or not.

"Continue. Continue. I hope that makes you feel powerful."

[brush]

13. These people are racist cowards who use the police to do their dirty work for them...

while remaining anonymous.

Laws need to be passed to punish this passive aggressive racism.

[Dream Girl]

20. There must be more to the story

[EffieBlack]

22. We don't know what happened before...

[MaryMagdaline]

34. She knew exactly what she was doing

Made a comment that the common room was not for sleeping. She knew the grad student lived there. Knew damn well she was endangering her by calling police.

[Kurt V.]

7. I am so sick of this $#!

[LisaM]

8. This bothers me on many levels, but this woman who repeatedly makes these calls.....

what the eff is her problem? I knew every single person who lived in my (small, I admit) dorm, which was locked to outsiders, too. I'm guessing a dorm that a grad student lives in can't be all that big, either. I think that woman - the nuisance caller - needs to be required to take some counseling classes, at the very least.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Two things that can be done is enforcing false report laws and suing the police. . . . .nt

[AllaN01Bear]

10. i am so sick of this stuff. bah humbug.

[mythology]

11. So the person who called the police knew Ms Siyonbola lived there

That's stupid on a new level to call the police. Even if you think it's wrong for somebody to sleep in a common space, calling the police for that is absurd as there is no actual harm being done.

[MaryMagdaline]

35. I'm calling the police next time someone leaves the cap off the toothpaste.

[aeromanKC]

14. What, no RA's at Yale?

Napping in a common space seems more of an RA issue than a Police issue!!

[ornotna]

15. We need to get a grip

(we, as in white people) This shit got old a long, long time ago.

[Collimator]

16. Students sleeping in odd spaces . . .

. . . is a staple of college life. At high stress schools, people often catch up on their sleep in dribs and drabs wherever and whenever they can.

At my college, students would often nap in the study carrels in the library. Once, I saw a student stretched out atop of one of the eight foot plus tall bookshelves. I have no idea of how she got up there.

[NBachers]

17. Won't the leaders of the white community speak out to improve their population's behavior??

[EffieBlack]

19. Jason Johnson: "We Need to Talk About Why White Americans Call the Police on Black People"

I’m talking about the white woman at the Red Roof Inn outside of Pittsburgh who called the cops on me because I disputed the charges on my bill and asked to speak to a manager. I’m talking about the white woman who called the cops on me last year even though she knew I was walking with political canvassers for Jon Ossoff’s congressional campaign in North Atlanta. I’m talking about the police officer who followed me behind my house in Hiram, Ohio, asking where I lived because he’d “gotten some calls about robberies.”

In each and every single one of these instances, a white person used the cops as his or her personal racism valets, and I was the one getting served. In each of these instances, I could have been arrested, beaten up or worse based on nothing more than the word of a white person whom I made uncomfortable. As sick as this all is, I still consider myself lucky.

Tamir Rice was killed at the tender age of 12 because a man who admitted to spending the afternoon drinking called 911 to report a “juvenile” who was probably carrying a “fake” gun. Constance Hollinger, the 911 dispatcher, who failed to deliver that information to the cops, got an eight-day suspension but kept her job, and there was no investigation into the caller. Tamir is still dead.

Then there’s Ronald T. Ritchie, who told 911 that John Crawford III was running around Walmart “menacing children” with a shotgun. Crawford, holding a BB gun—sold at Walmart—in the open carry state of Ohio, was shot and killed by police. Despite clear evidence that Ritchie lied to the 911 dispatcher, which is a crime, no charges were filed against him.

You can get arrested for pulling a fire alarm, making fake bomb threats and making false claims of an alien invasion—why not a false police report that results in death? We should be pushing for prosecution against these callers just as much as the cops who pull the trigger.

https://www.theroot.com/from-starbucks-to-hashtags-we-need-to-talk-about-why-w-1825284087

[kwassa]

23. "a white person used the cops as his or her personal racism valets"

what a great line. It is true. Cashing in on white privilege to call the cops on people of color that upset you, just for being.

[Takket]

21. so now we can add "sleeping" to the offical "...while black" list

[Cha]

24. JHC.. you can't take a nap anymore?!

[Quayblue]

25. The woman living behind me used to call the cops

about once every 2 weeks during the summer when my children and neighbors' children would play in the backyard.

Her excuse is that the kids were taunting her German Shepherd... that she'd intentionally bring down to the property line to bark and growl at the kids. The cops would come and say, "We know she's a nuisance, but we can't do anything."

One day, she pulled a shotgun on the neighbor kids' mother, while calling us all spics and niggers. She finally got arrested. But it took our lives being threatened for it to be taken seriously.

Anyone who thinks minorities have to be doing anything but living to experience this shit, can kiss the entirety of my ass. Just being dark skinned and breathing is enough.

For the past 2 summers, the dog has been absent and she's no longer in the yard to taunt us. But my kids hardly go out there to play anymore, though it's spacious and beautiful. They've already been traumatized by racism.

[MaryMagdaline]

37. God I am so sorry

You and your kids do not deserve this.

[wonkwest]

26. At this point, false report charges need to be considered

Apparently this individual has a history of this.

And the Yale administration needs to take a good, hard look at what is going on here.

No one has a right to harass. This seems like harassment to me. A young women sent through the wringer? And apparently not the only young woman when it comes to this individual doing the reporting. Newp. When looking for what the problem is here, the instigator seems fairly obvious. Her presence at the university needs to now be under peril. It's the only way some people learn.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

27. As an older white lady, who quite frankly benefits from

being in the older white lady demographic (I get warnings from cops when I speed, never a ticket; younger people almost invariably let me go in front of them in a grocery store line; random strangers help me carry heavy items) I know that I cannot begin to imagine what it is like to be a person of color. I'm thinking that the main reason this incident didn't escalate was 1. it was a female, and 2. it was on a college campus. Nonetheless, I'm outraged. College students often nap in random places. Good grief.

I cannot understand the "Call 911 IMMEDIATELY" mindset. In all of my 69 years on this planet I've called 911 once and only once, and that was about a year ago when I saw a car hit a bicyclist (the bicyclist's fault for what that is worth) in front of me. Maybe I've led an unusually sheltered life, but I can't begin to understand the "call 911" mindset if it's not a genuine 911 situation.

I do have enough of a sense of the gender disparity that I cautioned my sons when they were first driving that they'd get a ticket under circumstances that I wouldn't, just because they were male. Heck, one time after returning to college after spring break my younger son called me up and was asking some strange questions, and I finally said, "What exactly is going on?" Turned out he'd gotten a speeding ticket that he didn't really have enough money to pay. "Oh, for Pete's sake! EVERYONE gets a speeding ticket now and then. How much do you need to pay the fine?" He was afraid I'd go all judgemental on him, but (even though I've never actually gotten a speeding ticket myself) I know they are common. Big deal. Pay the fine and move on.

Anyway, aside from this woman's genuinely fascinating name, this is something that shouldn't happen, and probably wouldn't happen if a white student had been sleeping in the common room. What the hell is wrong with people?

[MFM008]

28. Don't be so sure

Some people are such assholz that they would call on anyone asleep because you know those
Scummy homeless people...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

29. I guess I'll have to take up napping in public places to test this.

Not sure what smiley is appropriate, but I do get your point.

I do think that those of us who are privileged, no matter how hard we try, cannot fully understand the extent of our privilege.

I referenced my Old White Lady privilege. I live in New Mexico, where there is a genuine appreciation and honoring of moms and grandmoms. I am noticeably Anglo, and I'm constantly amazed and (not sure the correct word here, humbled? honored?) that the locals, who are mainly Hispanic and perhaps Native American) only notice my old lady status. My ethnicity/race is clearly irrelevant. And what's been interesting over the past ten years I've lived here, is that as I get older and look older, that consideration and respect has grown. It happens on an almost daily basis, and I'm gratified and appreciative.

In my defense, I will note that when I see someone with a young child who is fussy, I will very happily let them get in front of me in a line, because I remember all too well what it was like to be out with a small one who was fussy for whatever reason.

My underlying philosophy in life is that we are here to help each other.

[MFM008]

38. Hey ive

Dozed off in the library.
They will wake you up if your homeless, but left the old white broad alone.....

[VOX]

30. Merely existing peacefully as an African-American citizen will never be allowed.

Racism, xenophobia and sexism have all gotten a boost from the multiple nationalistic/jingoistic movements worldwide. And Donald Trump, Facist President of the U.S., is leading the pack.

Anyone who cannot grasp that this country is running backwards at high speed is absolutely blind.

[dalton99a]

31. White woman identified:

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/05/10/yale-responds-after-black-student-reported-for-napping-in-common-room/

After Yale Police officers questioned a black graduate student, Lolade Siyonbola GRD ’19, in response to a complaint about her sleeping in a Hall of Graduate Studies common room made by a white graduate student, Sarah Braasch GRD ’20, the University sent an email to graduate and professional school students on Wednesday night describing the incident as “deeply troubling” and reaffirming Yale’s commitment to addressing incidents of “racial bias, discrimination and harassment.”

Early Tuesday morning, Yale police officers interrogated Siyonbola for more than 15 minutes, after Braasch reported Siyonbola to the police for sleeping in the HGS common room. The email, sent by University Secretary and Vice President for Student Life Goff-Crews, stated that Yale police “admonished the complaining student that the other student had every right to be present.”

Braasch, who was identified on social media by Yale students as stills and clips from Siyonbola’s videos circulated online, has not responded to multiple requests for comment. By the early hours of Thursday morning, Siyonbola’s Facebook posts had been updated to identify Braasch by name.

http://www.newsweek.com/white-yale-student-called-police-after-finding-black-student-asleep-common-918613

A white graduate student at Yale called police after she discovered a black student sleeping in a common room area. Fallout of the incident has been captured on social media.

Yale graduate student Lolade Siyonbola filmed the moment campus police officers started asking her questions. They were called by Sarah Braasch, who found Siyonbola asleep in the building they both live in.

Siyonbola posted two videos online—one confronting Braasch in the hallway and another when the police arrive—after Braasch was allegedly involved in a similar incident with one of her friends in the past.

“This Sarah Braasch called the cops on my friend a few months ago for getting lost in my building. Today she messed—again—with the wrong one,” Siyonbola wrote on Facebook.

[Mc Mike]

32. New Haven area Women's rights people could examine internal prejudicial flaws in their org,

or look at Braasch and her friends in a new light, as rightwing infiltrators and troublemakers.

The repugs are going to have creepy crawlies inside every decent group. Womens' rights and Civil rights are fighting against the same orange supremacists.