Shippensburg University students and faculty gathered to address the topic of Black Lives Matter and the police at the 10th annual Criminal Justice Symposium in the Old Main Chapel on Tuesday, Sept. 20.

Professor Stephanie Jirard moderated the symposium. The speakers included Jamonn Campbell, psychology professor; Sharnine Herbert, human communication studies associate professor; Raymond Janifer, English professor; and Shippensburg Borough Police Chief Fred Scott. This is the first year someone outside of SU spoke at the symposium.

The symposium was not created to be a debate, but rather generate dialogue and discussion without fear, Jirard said. Jirard encouraged everyone to have an open mind throughout the symposium. Black Lives Matter is not a movement about exclusion, she said. She emphasized that all lives matter, but black lives are treated differently by the criminal justice system.

Herbert spoke about the positions that people take in social movements such as those who work with fanatics, words or action. She said she was intrigued by social movements, and the rights of a citizen is to protest issues one thinks are wrong. Scott repeatedly said when someone is doing wrong — speak up.

Speakers at the symposium also addressed the issue of gun violence. Campbell shared a graph comparing gun-related deaths in the U.S. as opposed to other countries.

The question, Campbell said, is why unarmed minorities are being shot by the police. He said one problem was that 25 to 50 percent of police shootings are not reported to the federal government. Systematic unconscious bias against African-Americans is another problem, and recognizing that bias is the first step to eliminating it, he said.

Scott spoke from the police perspective and asked for police to be judged as human beings and not just minority killers. He said it is OK to protest, but think of all sides.

“We are human beings just like you,” Scott said. “We make mistakes.”

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