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Antwi Akom: Criminal Charges Are Dropped Against San Francisco State U. Professor

The San Francisco district attorney has dropped criminal charges against a San Francisco State University professor who was arrested last fall after a scuffle with campus police officers.

The faculty member, Antwi Akom, an assistant professor of black studies, was stopped by police officers in his locked office building after 11 p.m. one night in October. Mr. Akom has accused the police of racial profiling (The Chronicle, November 2, 2005).

On Friday the district attorney, Kamala D. Harris, dismissed criminal charges against Mr. Akom of resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.

"The district attorney's office believes the interests of justice can be best served not in the criminal courts, but within the university community, employing the university's extensive procedures for responding to incidents involving faculty," said a written statement issued by Ms. Harris's office.

The district attorney's decision came days after the release of a 102-page investigative report by Willie L. Brown, a former mayor of San Francisco, and Louise H. Renne, a former city attorney, who were asked by Robert A. Corrigan, the university's president, to conduct an independent review of Mr. Akom's arrest. The report concluded that Mr. Akom was not a subject of racial profiling and that Mr. Akom had behaved in a "physically and verbally intimidating matter."

Read entire article at Chronicle of Higher Education