Black Orgs Condemn Response to Swatting

BY J. SELLERS HILL AND NIA L. ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Forty-five Harvard organizations cosigned a letter to administrators detailing a list of demands following the University’s response to a “swatting” attack that saw four Black undergraduates ordered out of their rooms at gunpoint by Harvard University Police Department officers earlier this month.

According to the letter, which was sent Wednesday, members of co-signatory organizations will stage a demonstration during Visitas — the College’s admitted students weekend — if the University does not respond to the demands by April 23. This year’s Visitas will take place from April 23 to April 24.

The letter follows a wave of student and alumni outrage following the April 3 swatting attack, which prompted at least five HUPD officers to enter the students’

Leverett suite at approximately 4:15 a.m. with riot gear and assault rifles. The officers were responding to a false 911 call about an armed individual in the dormitory and later deemed the situation safe.

The letter, which was predominantly signed by Black student organizations, levies a series of criticisms of the University’s response to the attacks and makes five specific demands.

The letter calls for a University-wide statement recognizing the “significant racial impact” of the swatting, a “thorough investigation” by HUPD, increased transparency and accountability in campus policing, a “proactive” mental health response, and an in-person town hall with administrators.

“We condemn the University’s failure to, at large, protect its Black community’s emotional and physical wellbeing in the aftermath of such trauma,” the letter reads.