Earlier this month, an extremely graphic video was released and went viral on social media. This video shows a University of Alabama student choking and beating a cat repeatedly with a belt. This video, as I'm sure you can imagine, has caused major uproar.
In response to outraged students, the university announced that the student will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct.
We are aware of a video depicting animal cruelty. The individual has been referred to law enforcement and UA's Office of Student Conduct.
— The Univ. of Alabama (@UofAlabama) November">https://twitter.com/UofAlabama/status/661553415101... 3, 2015 The Tuscaloosa Police also said they are investigating the event, which sounds absurd because I am not quite sure what there is to investigate. We can all literally see the man choking and beating a live cat with the belt.
Other students apparently feel the same way I do, because around 25 students decided to protest in front of City Hall on November 9, demanding that the student in the video face criminal charges.
"We feel that animal abuse and animal cruelty is a very serious issue, and we want them to take it seriously as well," Sherry Hassell, a protester and member of Alabama Voters for Responsible Animal Legislation said. "We also want to see this cat abuser come to justice. We want to see him arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The student has been identified by Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steve Anderson to be a man named Brandon White. TPD obtained a search warrant to search the man's home in Sumter County, and reportedly found the cat unharmed. Police took White's cell phone and searched it for further evidence, but have not made an arrest, due to the fact that they do not know where or when the video was filmed.
TPD posted this information after the search, along with photos of the unharmed cat, and documentation as proof of a veterinary visit.
"Citizens and law enforcement need to come together and take a stand and say to these criminals, we will no longer tolerate this and these kind of criminals, they need to get more than a slap on the hand, more than just a small little fine, we need to have heavy, fines a lot of money and long jail time," Hassell said.
Chief Anderson responded, “A lot of people felt we were not doing anything to investigate this case, and that’s absolutely not true. I have an investigator who has come in on her days off to work on it. But there are two things missing that we need. We don’t know when the video was taken, and we don’t know where it was taken.”
White and his mother, a police officer in Sumter County, refuse to speak with investigators.
With the videos we have seen of the police brutality that occurred in Tuscaloosa this month, let's hope TPD realizes that with a new generation of college students in their hands that are fluent in social media and sharing events they find horrifying, their job of addressing these issues is under the spotlight, and everyone is watching.
