Stand with Maria: Overcome Police Brutality Impact

Hello again. I’m back to go fund me , but this time, it is to raise some funds to recoup some lost wages over the last year and a half.

short version:

I am a victim of police brutality. The president of my last job decided to fire me, even though the investigation was ongoing and I had not been proven guilty. Ultimately, one and a half years later, I have not been found guilty of the charges that were brought against me. I am creating the go fund me as a way to recoup some of the ~$30k in lost wages.

long version:

I attended a protest at a school campus (that I graduated from and also at the time worked at) on Monday April 29 2024 in support of students who were calling on the school to disclose privately invested funds and divest from weapons manufacturers.

The goal of this protest was a last ditch effort to get the attention of administration who had, for months, been dodging questions from the student body about where funds were coming from and where they were going. I witnessed these students try everything: they made appointments which were canceled last minute, they did sit-ins, they did a hunger strike, and their nest effort was an encampment.

I did not know the encampment was happening until I saw a heavy police presence at the student center during my lunch hour. I was wondering why so many police were around. Shortly thereafter, the protestors marched onto MLK lawn.

I had attended many protests on campus before, as a student and as a staff member. I have not ever seen a police presence like this. I walked over and listened to their demands and stood by, in case anyone was wrongfully arrested - I thought I could be a witness.

the following can be seen in public videos on the internet:

As I stood, suddenly someone rammed into me. I was looking off to the side when they ran into me, I had no idea they were coming. Multiple policemen were pushing into the crowd. In a defensive mindset, I yelled, “no no no” and stretched my arms outward in an attempt to protect the people behind me. I was then pushed down to the ground.

The video attached, uploaded to a public account on instagram, shows what happened after I was pushed down. If you view the beginning of the video at half speed, you can see the officer places his hand onto my throat as he falls on top of me. This sends me into fight or flight. He is grabbing at my arms and I have no idea why this is happening. I yell for him to get off of me and try to squirm my arms out of his grip. It is never announced that I am under arrest.

People around me are falling, the sun is in my face, and I just see the officers red angry face looking down at me. He begins to place a zip tie on my wrist and I instinctively try to get my wrists away. I am then dragged across the ground and once he lets me go a little, I flip to my belly and try to keep my arms to my chest as tight as I can. I do this because I know if I resist without violence during an illegal arrest, that is okay to do.

They pull my arms back and I ask the female officer with blonde hair what I did. She says that I will be told once I am in the car.

I am taken to the car and a few minutes later another protestor is put into the car with me. We are transported to another area on campus and I still don’t know why they rushed into the crowd and escalated an otherwise peaceful protest, or why I was arrested. My arresting officer, a woman with brown hair, never tells us.

I spent the next day in county jail, had to pay 10k in bail (half was provided by a bail fund and the other half provided my my spouse), and lost my job before any guilt was found. Now my case is closed, and I have not been found guilty.

A few days after my termination, I learned that admin of the school sent an e-mail to students ONLY, saying that students would face repercussions if they were caught building a tent, because they didn’t have a permit to do so. I never received this email, because I was staff at the time. I suppose this is what they were calling their warning.

They never announced any warning that day in front of everyone who was attending, some who were not students. My point is this: they threatened to trespass people who were building a tent. I never touched a tent. That was supposedly the basis for the arrest to begin with.

I still don’t understand why I was arrested that day, since I never touched, let alone built, a tent. You can find footage of the protest after we were arrested and see that people were allowed to stay and sit on the lawn. If I was arrested for trespassing even though I never touched a tent, then why were the people who stayed on the lawn not trespassed as well? Not that they should’ve been but I also strongly believe that I shouldn’t have been either.

To reiterate, I have never once in my life been in any kind of physical altercation. I never received a warning or was told that I was under arrest.

I have been to protests on campus before and never would have guessed that it would have escalated as quickly as it did. It all happened so fast.

My name is smeared, and I have been unable to find employment. I have been doing my best to find work as an artist but I am simply burnt out after completing three fundraisers for myself and others who were arrested, making prints and t-shirts and taking commissions. I experience chronic pain in my right arm which makes illustration physically painful and I can’t do it at that capacity anymore. I have been pet sitting for three people over the last year but those come every couple of months- and I can’t sign up for Rover because they require a background check. My record won’t be expunged until next year.

In the meantime, I am living with my in-laws (I’m grateful for them) and growing a garden in the backyard that my mother-in-law encourages. I have attended art fests and zine fests and have made some money that way. But I haven’t made 30k like I otherwise would have if my job hadn’t fired me. My savings is drained and I have no healthcare.

I have had some doors open but once I get in the doorway they always run into “hiring issues” and the door closes. I wonder if it’s because they google my name and see that I was charged with felonies, even though I was never convicted.

This has been the most difficult year of my life. My friend encouraged me to make this go fund me so I am. Thanks for reading and one day I hope to repay the favor once I have steady employment again.

Thanks for reading.

In solidarity,

Maria