The third and final police-community forum is scheduled for Thursday, October 30 at Brian Coyle Community Center. But some Northside residents say that City officials are doing more listening but still taking too little action to address current concerns about police brutality.
“There is a crisis going on of the value of life of Black and Brown people in this country. I don’t believe they are hearing [these concerns],” said Keno Evol of Save the Kids, a local group that organized a peaceful march from North Commons Park to the fourth precinct station on Plymouth Avenue North and back to the park just after sundown on Wednesday, October 22.
“I think they need to take seriously what they already heard,” Evol told the MSR while he and over 50 persons of various ethnicities walked down Penn Avenue. He and Anthony Nocella were among the persons who spoke to the crowd in front of the police station. Police officers told the MSR that it was a quiet gathering.
It’s not just about Black people, said Nocella. “We want to educate our people because the officials, the police and the system won’t change.”
“I’m walking [because] I want us all to know that it’s not a Black thing [or a] White thing but a people thing,” added Apollyon Kennedy-Bey, who says he was tazed by police officers this summer. “I’m no angel, but I don’t deserve this because I am a human being.”
“It’s a nice, quiet, night demonstration,” said Evol. But amidst the cries of “No Justice, No Peace,” he interjected, “I think we have to implement those chants into action.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
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