COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — The University of Maryland’s president says campus officers’ use of pepper spray while breaking up a graduation party attended primarily by African-American students compels the school to confront the reality of bias that people of color face.
President Wallace Loh said in a statement Thursday that a routine review of the use of force is underway. Loh calls diversity “essential” to the university’s mission and says his staff met with students who were at the party and shared their “anguish.”
University police have said officers responded to a report of a fight Sunday and tried to get people to leave the party. Police say pepper spray was used when an officer was surrounded in a hallway and during a parking lot confrontation. Videos posted online show people screaming and coughing.
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