CALIFORNIA – Members of the Latino community at CaliforniaState University at Sacramento protested a front page photo inthe university’s student newspaper by stealing 3,000 copies ofthe Oct. 6 issue and blocking the entrance to the newspaper office.
In two consecutive days, campus students removed copies ofthe State Hornetfrom designated bins in reaction to a photothe newspaper ran of a Hispanic man under arrest for resistingarrest twice at a Sept. 18 football game. The photo ran with anarticle highlighting the violence that occurred at the game, includingthe death of a 21-year-old man who succumbed to injuries he receivedwhile trying to break up a fight in the stadium’s parking lot.
The State Hornetreceived a bomb threat on Oct. 8, althoughno bomb was found. According to Horneteditor David Summers,Latino students asked the newspaper to print a front page retractionand apology, publish a list of minority staff members and changeits editorial policy to prohibit the publication of anything depictingminorities in a negative light.
Summers said the newspaper will not yield to any of the students’demands.
“We ran the story in the terms that the bigger picturehere is that violence is to the point that somebody died at acampus event,” Summers said. “Something better needsto be done.”