Police Officers Beheaded in UW-Madison Student Film

MacIver News Service | September 21, 2017

[Madison, Wisc…] The UW-Madison removed an incredibly violent student video from its website this morning after controversy erupted throughout Wisconsin media Wednesday afternoon.

The video resembles an ISIS propaganda film. It begins with two actors portraying police officers wearing pig masks lynching an African American. The police officers are then seen fleeing from a masked African-American mob carrying an ax. The next scene shows one of the men holding the bloody pig mask (still wearing the police officer cap) and a machete in the other hand. The audio from a President Trump speech and protest chants plays over the video.

Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) reposted the video to his website, and is demanding the UW take action.

“This vile and racist anti-police video is clearly a direct threat to the brave men and women that serve behind the badge. UW-Madison must immediately hold these students accountable and that should include an investigation by the local police and the Wisconsin Department of Justice,” Nass said in a press release.

UW-Madison responded to the video Thursday morning, “”UW-Madison strives to provide a welcoming and inclusive campus environment, while allowing everyone to share ideas and political views in exercise of their free speech rights. However, the university strongly condemns the glorification of violence such as that contained in the promotion of a student-produced clothing line.”

The credits name Ekene Ikegwuani, Nyairy Daniels, Nesha Ruther, Ricardo De La Cruz II, Thomas Valtin-Erwin, Garrett Pauli, and Karon Sims as the cast.

The video was uploaded to a UW’s collaborative cloud intended for academic projects. Its terms of service read, “The University of Wisconsin-Madison expects that you will respect the rights of faculty and other students as you participate in the educational process. Participating in the UW Madison Box Service means that you may have access to personal information and academic work produced by other students and faculty members. Federal and state law and UW-Madison policy require that you must not reveal any information about classmates, course work content, or its authors.”

UW-Madison explained in a press release, “The individual in this situation is engaging in a private business activity, unrelated to his status as a UW-Madison student. The clothing in question is not produced, nor endorsed by UW-Madison.”