A crowd of more than 1,000 students and faculty members filled Plachta Auditorium to hear Jasmine Rand, an experienced civil rights attorney, speak on Tuesday.

Rand, founder of Florida-based ligation firm Rand Law L.L.C, has represented cases for the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Martin and Brown both made headlines in the last year for being murdered under suspicious and racially motivated circumstances.

She found a passion in legal studies and was consistent in becoming the attorney that she is known as today. The first generation college student went from scoring the lower 30^thpercentile on her Law School Admissions Test to being the youngest adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law.

“It was hard for me to stay motivated after being rejected from all of the law schools that I applied to,” Rand said. “I learned to stay up, keep striving in my vision and walk by faith.”

Although the attorney didn’t speak much on her experiences working with the families of Martin or Brown, she did depict her devastation the morning after the not guilty verdict was announced in the Martin case.

“I could barely sleep after the verdict was announced,” she said. “I felt completely numb.”

Rand gave her honest opinion on the nation’s police force, and how it changed when she first started taking cases in civil rights.

“I don’t have anything against cops; I have an issue with bad cops,” Rand said. “How couldn’t you have a negative bias toward law enforcement, when you are an attorney who takes cases that are against some of the worst police officers in the nation?”

She stressed the importance of never judging an individual, especially police officers, though a person in law enforcement is capable of abusing their authority.

Four members of Central Michigan University Police Department and the Mount Pleasant Police Department also answered questions and gave their opinions on police brutality in today’s society.

CMU Police Officer Paul Caley said placing an emphasis on education will assist in decreasing hate crimes that are specifically directed toward race.

“We must educate ourselves, educate others and then learn about others,” Caley said. “We must stop teaching prejudice behaviors because it is a learned behavior and continues to the next generation.”

Farmington Hills graduate student Tamika Williams said she was eager to hear Rand speak tonight and thoroughly enjoyed the discussion.

“I attended the event tonight because I felt that it was the best way to educate myself on police brutality,” Williams said. “It was best to hear from someone who is experienced in this field instead turning to the opinions of individuals on social media.”

Rand said she believes there is a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to race issues, but America must work together by looking for ways to improve law enforcement effectively and constitutionally.

“The change starts with us,” Rand said. “We must not see the world before us but start living in the vision of what the world we can be. As a society we must unlearn hate.”