While the media is talking about a burning Wendy’s. Let me tell you a different story of what I saw for many hours standing with protesters at the University Ave. uprising in response to the #RayshardBrooks killing.
-I saw a grieving neighborhood peacefully chanting demands and having hard conversations with law enforcement in response to the killing of one of their own.
-I saw family members of Rayshard call for people to join them shut down the street down with protest until justice is done for their loved one. They started with a small crowd in the morning and grew to hundreds by evening.
-I saw protesters persist to express their constitutional right to peaceful assemble and protest despite being told by the police on the scene that gathering there was pointless and they needed leadership that could get a meeting with the Mayor not make noise in the street.
-I saw city hall staffers come out to assess the growing crowd and hear the repeated chant “Keisha needs to do her job”.
-I saw us celebrate in the streets when the news came that the chief of police had been asked to resign. And I saw the police who teased the protesters about their demonstration being pointless have to eat their words as the crowd chanted “you about to lose your job!”
-l saw a dispatched celebrity (T.I) come out to calm down the crowd and be sent away by protesters yelling repeatedly “we didn’t come for T.I.”. Eventually he left after about 20 minutes.
-I saw faith leaders like @leeavallen, myself and the protest chaplains crew trying to deescalate tensions and provide care for protesters and folks from the community. We did this for many hours until the situation was no longer sustainable.
-I saw “professional organizers” and leadership from legacy civil rights organizations come and try to provide guidance to protesters. Though this was well intentioned. It wasn’t well received. The community didn’t want to be led, they wanted to be heard.
-I saw a community very tired of black lives being unnecessarily taken by police and anti-black intentionally send a message by burning the Wendy’s where #RayshardBrooks was killed and block the interstate.
-I saw both of these acts of civil disobedience as the result of a community that feels unsafe, unprotected and subject to random state sponsored violence at any time. I saw them (us) as an expression of how many Black Americans feel collectively. Angry, unheard and tired.
