Surveilled on Your Own Campus

"It took Josiah Walker nearly two months to realize he was being followed. One afternoon in July of 2024, as he was walking down State Street in Ann Arbor, a white car pulled up beside him. Walker, a student at the University of Michigan and member of the college's pro-Palestine student activist group called Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), recognized the car's license plate, he said, having frequently noticed the vehicle around campus."

"According to Walker, an older man got out of the vehicle and stood beside him for a moment, then began walking down the street in the same direction Walker had been going. Near the end of the block, though, the car's driver stopped. As he did, Walker said he suddenly noticed multiple other vehicles-all of similar makes and models of the one now parked beside him-driving up and down the street."

"Walker told The Nation he was becoming increasingly unnerved, and decided to go into a nearby academic building. He entered through one door and rushed through to another exit, hoping to put some distance between himself and the strange scene he had just witnessed on State Street. But just as he was about to leave, he spotted the same man through a window, standing just across the street outside."

Josiah Walker, a University of Michigan student and member of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), noticed a white car repeatedly near campus in July 2024. He recognized the license plate and later saw an older man exit the vehicle and follow him down State Street. Multiple similar vehicles circulated the block while one driver stopped. Walker entered an academic building to escape and moved between exits to create distance. He then saw the same man standing outside through a window and retreated further down the stairwell. Upon reaching a different ground-floor exit he encountered the man again, who walked through the doorway and paused to stare directly at him.

Read at The Nation