Students have attended protests to demand justice for victims of police brutality.
Over the summer, many students attended civil rights protests across the country to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Now that students are back on campus, some have continued to protest in Oklahoma City.
Jay Williams, religion senior, said he’s attended several protests in Oklahoma since the death of George Floyd caused by a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck. Williams said protesting and civil disobedience has caused a lot of change throughout history.
“I think of people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, people like Marsha P. Johnson who led protests for queer freedom,” he said. “I think when you look at history, beyond voting and participating in elections, protests and civil disobedience has been the way we have affected most change. So, continuing the work of the giants that have gone before us and being in the streets participating in these protests and marches, I think that’s the most important way we can advocate for change.”
Cheyanne Marie, non-profit leadership graduate, said she’s attended protests in different states this summer, and each city handled the protests differently.
“I was visiting family in Tampa, Florida, and I just so happened to run into a march, and it was beautiful. There was no violence going on, and the police were really supporting the protesters. Contrary, I grew up in Atlanta and was visiting friends there around there and attended a rally, and it was not safe at all. It was definitely the police causing violence. A couple of my friends got hurt at that protest. The one I was actually a part of, I got to sing the Negro National Anthem, ‘Lift Our Voice and Sing,’ for the OKC rally,” she said.
Catherine Garcia, music theater sophomore, said she attended protests in her hometown of Portland, Oregon.
“Our protest focus shifted a lot over the summer because of where we were, but it started out primarily about the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Then, of course, in Portland, the feds came, so it did shift to be both about Black Lives Matter and getting the feds out of Portland,” she said.
Garcia said the protests were mostly peaceful and would feature Black leaders in the community as speakers.
“At least when I was there, the protests were definitely peaceful. It’d get a little weirder the later into the night it got, but there was a fair amount of violence from the Portland police bureau and from the feds,” she said.
Garcia also said she attended a protest on Sept. 23 in Oklahoma City after the decision made in the Breonna Taylor case, wherepolice officers shot a Black woman in her home, and a grand jury charged one of the officers with wanton endangerment for shots fired into neighbors’ apartments. She said the protesters walked around 23rd St. and Classen Blvd.
“To me, personally, what really struck me was that what that one officer was charged over was destruction of somebody else’s property, not even her life. No real justice was served,” she said.
OCU Police Chief Dexter Nelson said protests nowadays are changing. He said organizers used to reach out to the police ahead of time to get a permit, and law enforcement could work with them by re-directing traffic and making sure they’re safe.
“The days that organizers would reach out to police to make sure their march was peaceful and successful are out the window. We’ve gotten away from that because of the anti-police sentiment that people have started to take up with police brutality. Even the term ‘police brutality’ and ‘police violence’ to me, it would have been unheard of years ago to think the police would be involved in violence and brutality, but it happens. It doesn’t happen as often as you would think, and I still believe, having been in law enforcement for 30 years, a lot of it is more widely known. It’s always happened, but it was never termed the way it is termed now because people are less compliant with police, and because of that lack of compliance, officers are having to do more different things, and it’s leading to these types of issues,” he said.
Marie said police brutality is a major issue and should not be normalized.
“Yes, people are always dying, and yes, we hear about it more, but that does not make it right. That does not mean the numbers are soaring when they don’t need to be that high. It’s ridiculous how that’s a thought in peoples mind, ‘oh, this is normal,’” she said. “People are also not afraid to speak up like they were 50 years ago. I think people are now feeling like their voices are being heard, and I can say that as an Afro-Latina woman, I grew up with a mother who allowed me to speak my mind, so I never really had that notion that I can’t speak up or I can’t speak how I feel.”
Nelson said protests and marches are not peaceful if they interfere with people’s rights to peacefully go about their way.
“I know people say it’s peaceful, but if your march interferes with somebody else’s rights, it’s not peaceful,” he said. “When you’re marching through the street and you don’t have a permit to be in the street, technically that’s not a peaceful march, because you may have to go to work, an ambulance may have to pick someone up.”
Nelson said protests have become more disorganized.
“Protesting today is so disorganized it’s like a flash mob. There’s some internet, social media stuff, people show up, and they do what they want to do. They yell and scream, they have some signs, march, sometimes stuff gets torn up, and then it dissipates. What did that get you? Nothing. It’s better to have more organization to it; what’s the plan? Signing up to vote, getting a petition started to change the law as to what the police do and how they do it?”
Nelson said sometimes when you exercise your rights, even if you’re in the right in doing so, it can escalate and give officers more justification to detain you or use force. He said he doesn’t understand why people protesting police attend protests when they know there will be law enforcement there.
“If you know police are doing things they shouldn’t be doing and people are getting hurt, why then would you do something to put yourself in the situation for that to happen to you? Most people can’t separate one cop from another, so they think it’s all of us, but if you think we’re all wrong, why then would you load the gun and give it to him and say ‘shoot me’ by not complying and giving that officer more of a reason to use force and detention and other methods, because that’s what that does,” he said.
Nelson said he’s experienced racism from law enforcement both before and during his time working as a police officer.
“I’m a Black man first. I’m always going to be a Black man. I’m not always going to be a police officer. I’ve had some of the same experiences as a lot of these people who have ended up dead have had with police officers. I’ve had guns drawn on me, I’ve been thrown on the ground, I’ve been pulled out of my car as a police officer and before I was a police officer. I’ve even had the police called on me and they arrive and are like, ‘hey, what are you doing here?’ So, I see it, and I understand a lot of white officers don’t have those same experiences and they can’t relate to that, and some of them are trying to deal with it and understand, and some aren’t. Until we’re able to empathize with someone else and see the other person’s side, these things are going to continue to happen.”
Nelson also said people should understand if you do anything that can be construed as a violation of the law while protesting, officers can take action against you. He said to immediately separate yourself from the group if people start vandalizing or violating the law in other ways.
Garcia said it’s important to be able to exercise your right to protest.
“I think the right to protest is one of the most fundamental of any democracy in the world,” she said. “When a governing body is not doing what the people want, it’s important that the people have a voice and a chance to speak out against that and say, ‘this isn’t what we elected you to be doing. You need to be doing better for us.’”
Marie said if people don’t want to protest, people can create change in other ways.
“You can hand out flyers. You don’t have to physically be there. You can share your voice, donate, be an ally for a friend or people when you see them being treated differently,” she said. “For me, it surpasses the Black community. It’s everyone; we’re all human beings. Right now, our people are struggling, but at the end of the day, just figure out what you can do in your life using what you have, because there is something you can do, and even the smallest thing makes a big difference.”
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