A pair of HBCU students were violently arrested by Atlanta police amid protests in the city late Saturday night (May 30), and the whole thing was caught on camera and aired on live television.
Messiah Young, a Morehouse College student, and Taniyah Pilgrim, a student at Spelman, were driving Saturday evening around 9:30 p.m. when APD officers flattened their tires and broke the windows of their car before pepper-spraying and tazing them.
The officers could then be seen yanking the pair out of the vehicle one-by-one and then placing them under arrest.
It isn’t clear whether authorities were enforcing the city’s new 9 p.m. curfew amid protests or if they were just doing what cops do (i.e. attacking black people), which is the whole reason why folks are protesting to begin with.
This young Black couple, Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim, were tased and pulled out of their car by Atlanta police last night on live TV for breaking the 9 pm curfew https://t.co/fXGTfGXvJJ
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 31, 2020
Spelman College’s Student Government Association released a statement early Sunday morning saying that they were “deeply disturbed by the excessive force that the Atlanta Police Department exercised against” Messiah and Taniyah.
Spelman SGA stands in solidarity with Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young.
We will continue to keep you updated.
Please take care of your mental health tonight, AUC family. #Redefined79 #StudentsLikeYou pic.twitter.com/o5JNs6UwxZ
— Spelman College SGA (@SpelmanSGA) May 31, 2020
An AUC (Atlanta University Center) protest has reportedly been planned in response to the violent arrests of the HBCU students, and a GoFundMe has been established to help raise bail money for the pair.
Taniyah has reportedly been released, while Messiah remains in police custody.
Justice for Taniyah and Messiah. There was NO EXCUSE for how they were treated. pic.twitter.com/7KhYlep9h0
— Jordan? (@JShambryy) May 31, 2020
