The Yale student who was interrogated by campus police for taking a nap in the common area of her dormitory said Monday that she uploaded the video of the incident "for my safety."
The student, Lolade Siyonbola, is the latest African American to have the police called for an innocuous act. She said on ABC News’ "Good Morning America" that she "posted the video just for my safety."
She recalled the death of Sandra Bland, an African American woman who died while in police custody after being arrested for a traffic violation.
"I have always said to myself since Sandra Bland was killed. I said to myself if I ever have an encounter with police I'll film myself," she said.
Last week, a white Yale student, who has since been identified as Sarah Braasch, called campus police after finding Siyonbola, a 34-year-old graduate student, sleeping in the common area of their dormitory. The officers questioned Siyonbola for almost 20 minutes while demanding that she prove her enrollment even after she showed the officers her own dorm room. Siyonbola says she fell asleep in the common room while working on a paper.
"It had already been like a stressful week, you know, ahead of this," she added. "I had barely been sleeping, so to sort of be on the couch and for the lights to come on, I was like, ‘Who is interrupting my nap?’ after all and to see that it was Sarah, of all people, because she had called the police on my friend before. I was just like, 'You've got to be kidding me.'"
Another Yale student, black graduate student Reneson Jean-Louis, told CNN that the same student that called campus police on Siyonbola called the police on him, after he got lost in her building while trying to meet with Siyonbola and other graduate students.
"I just went with God and said, ‘Whatever's meant to be will be,’ but it's just mind-boggling that you know somebody could behave like this," Siyonbola said.
"Someone who uses the police in the way that Sarah uses it, should be held accountable," she continued. "Whether that's expulsion [or] some other form of disciplinary action, there needs to be some punitive measures for people who act out of racially motivated bias.
"If there are punitive measures, I think someone like Sarah will think twice about calling the police."
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