The University of Arizona’s Institutionalized Border Violence

courtesy Taylor Miller It was dusk for kilometers and bats in the lavender sky, like spiders when a fly is caught, began to appear. And… This interview was edited for clarity and length and a shorter version originally appeared in the print edition of The New York War Crimes. The New York War Crimes: Tell us about the first day of the occupation. Cal Poly Humboldt: The plan was to have a Seder. It was Passover. A number of Jewish students had brought, you know, big buckets of Matzo ball soup. Around 4:30 in the afternoon, we entered Siemens Hall for what we thought would be a pretty calm occupation. Instead, we were immediately met with confrontation from university police. People had their chairs ripped from under them and were shoved to the floor. Others were shoved against the wall. Then those first couple of cops were forced out of the building. Word spread very quickly throughout town, that there was a building occupation happening on campus, and that the cops were showing up with less-lethal weapons, batons and riot gear ready to kick us out. People made the decision that the safest option would be to build barricades to