In the past two years, two Columbia students have been killed in or near Morningside Park. Columbia Public Safety and the NYPD’s responses to the murders have been nearly identical, and neither have been popular in the community.

When Barnard first-year Tess Majors was killed in a random attack in 2019, Columbia and the New York Police Department responded by increasing police presence in Morningside Heights and West Harlem, leading to concerns of over-policing in a community with a historically-tense relationship with law enforcement. Nearly two years later, in the aftermath of Davide Giri’s murder, University administrators and the NYPD are responding similarly.

In an email to students on December 3, just hours after Giri was murdered, Vice President for Public Safety James McShane wrote that the NYPD will temporarily increase police presence in Morningside Park after 7 p.m. Columbia Public Safety has added additional foot patrols on Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue and vehicle patrols to Morningside Park. This response is nearly identical to that of Majors’ death and is already garnering criticism.

On December 11, 2019, 18-year-old Tess Majors was stabbed to death by Luchiano Lewis while he and two other teenagers were attempting to rob her. Lewis, who was 14 at the time of the murder, was sentenced to nine years to life in prison. Two other minors were implicated in Majors’ murder—one unnamed minor who was sentenced to 18 months in the custody of New York City Administration for Children’s Services and another minor, Rashaun Weaver, will be tried as an adult.

A day after Majors’ stabbing, then New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio confirmed the city’s deployment of additional NYPD officers to Morningside Heights. Columbia Public Safety also enhanced public safety measures along Morningside Drive by including additional foot and vehicle patrols. McShane then spoke of the University’s approval of these joint efforts.

Majors’ memory lives on in the Columbia and Morningside Heights community. For student groups and community members, honoring Majors’ meant not just remembering their life, but ensuring that the campus and surrounding community came together.

While students found a heightened sense of unity in the memory of Majors’, the actions taken by Columbia and the NYPD further strained the tenuous relationship between the University and the Morningside Heights community.

Community members and student groups advocated strongly against the use of police presence and force to combat violence, citing community-based measures as the key to stopping deaths given that the killer was only 14.

In the year following Majors’ death, calls to reform or defund Columbia Public Safety gained record support just as the murder of Black Americans by law enforcement and ensuing nationwide Black Lives Matter protests inspired a large-scale movement to reform or defund the police. Columbia students joined this movement by sending letters to the administration and creating strike demands.

Derrick Haynes, a Democratic County Committee Member and Executive Director of Block Renovation City Community Services, shared that public safety changes made in response to Giri’s death are already visible, particularly near Morningside Park and the nearby Manhattanville and Grant houses.

“In the evenings after a certain time, pretty much nobody is outside. And it's not just because of the cold. It's because of the uptick in the police presence,” he said.“This is not how we want to live.”

Haynes said NYPD and Columbia Public Safety’s response to Davide Giri’s death echoed changes made in the wake of Majors’ death—changes which “made everybody uneasy because our communities are always over-policed.” He does not believe that increased police presence is the solution to violence, no matter how tragic.

Haynes described going to a local public school to speak to parents and staff and learning that no additional services were provided to students after Majors’ murder, despite the jarring fact that their murderer was their age. He could have been their classmate.

“I'm sure there are now grievance counselors at Columbia. That they have extended their hours … That same thing really needs to happen in the community. We can't leave the community behind,” Haynes said.

Haynes wants to see more involvement from Columbia. He explained his present view of the University in terms of “human and building capital expenditures.” After expansion plans to Manhattanville were established, he observed a shift in Columbia’s priorities. “Right now as we look at the expansion of Columbia University, it's a major expenditure toward buildings. And unfortunately, a community and human capital is being left behind.”

He views it as the University’s responsibility to provide more support than they are currently offering. From Haynes’ perspective, Columbia ought to set aside funds for the West Harlem Development Corporation and “take a leading role” in providing basic community services.

“I actually believe that it's time for President Bollinger to come down to the forum and speak with the community,” he said. Haynes shared that before the announcement of Columbia’s Manhattanville plans, Bollinger spoke to the community. He says Bollinger needs to do so again.

“We almost faced a double murder here. A double murder. And whether it's a Columbia student or community resident, we can't allow that to happen,” he said.

Joe Finberg, a member of Columbia’s Democratic Socialists of America Organization, echoed some sentiments expressed by Haynes.

“How can we mitigate the problem that Columbia presents here with regard to gentrification?” Finberg said.

Finberg held that a crime like that of Giri’s murder raises three major issues—lack of mental health services, unemployment, and rapid American deindustrialization.

“It's a fact that if Vincent Pickney [the man who stabbed Davide] was able to find a job as a working-class man in America, a good-paying job where he could have rent, he could have food on his table … he would never have needed to turn to a life of crime at a young age,” Finberg said.

Finberg, like Haynes, believed that Columbia can and should be doing more than it is at present to support the community. He identified violence as an issue of mental health, and thus one that should be addressed with increased access to health services.

“We are one of the largest research universities in the country and we have this endowment lying around with billions of dollars… we could be spending money on making mental health services via Columbia health free for anybody in Harlem—fuck it, for everybody in New York, he said.”

Columbia Law School Professor and Director of the Columbia Law School’s Center for Institutional and Social Change Susan Sturm, spoke to the effects that decisions to increase law enforcement presence, like those made recently by Columbia Public Safety and NYPD, may have on the community.

With respect to an act of violence leading to greater law enforcement, Sturm said, “it's an understandable response. It's a kind of reactive response. It doesn't actually get at the issues that give rise to the fear.”

Such reactivity, she said, “can really undercut progress towards building these more proactive long-term strategies that come from locating responsibility in communities that can actually work effectively with young people.”

Sturm commented not only the effects over-policing can have on relationships between communities and neighboring powerful institutions, but the individuals within those communities. “The process of feeling included depends a lot on being able to walk down the street without having the fear of being stopped and frisked.”

“[A focus on structural and community-based solutions] can build relationships across these communities rather than building walls between them, which is likely to just simply exacerbate the problems that we're experiencing,” she said.

​Staff writer Dylan Andres can be contacted at dylan.andres@columbiaspectator.com. Follow her on Twitter @dyllandres.