Marchers call for local police reforms

On Saturday, a small group of protesters joined the Jericho March to protest discrimination, negligence and violence they said was linked to the local police department and the Bexar County Jail.

The group gathered at Columbus Park before noon for a series of speakers before marching along Santa Rosa Street to the front of police headquarters. Later that afternoon, the group was scheduled to march to the Sheriff ’s Office.

Activist Julianna Pope, Justice Martinez and Mario Marcel Salas hosted the event. In the past weeks, the park was the site of demonstrations aimed at the removal of a statue of explorer Christopher Columbus. On July 1, the Christopher Columbus Italian Society took down the statue to prevent it from being damaged.

Pope, 20, said she named the march after the biblical story of the Joshua and the Israelites who brought down the walls of Jericho with their horns.

“I think its time to make some noise,” she said. “It’s time for the walls that shield the racist institutions to fall.”

Community activist Ananda Tomas, with FIX S.A.P.D. said the organization’s focus is to repeal chapters 143 and 174 of the Texas Local Government Code.

She said code 143 makes it impossible to fire bad cops and keep them fired and code 174 favors the San Antonio Police Officers Association where its needs come before those of the people.

“This is one of the ways to take on the system and fix it so that it represents and protects us,” Tomas said.

She said the activist organization is focused on compassionate policing, responsible budgeting, civic accountability and reliance on best practices that can rebuild trust between officers and the community they serve.

By noon, 37 participants had arrived at the COVID compliant protest where volunteers provided hand sanitizer, masks, food and water. Registrars stood at tables ready to sign people up to vote.

Salas, a community activist, said there is a history of police-involved violence in the city. He cited the case of Bobby Joe Phillips who was arrested and beaten by local police in 1968 and died from his injuries.

“That didn’t happen in Mississippi, that happened here in San Antonio, Texas,” said Salas, chairman for the San Antonio Coalition for Police Accountability and Reform.

He thanked the activists and groups from the past such as Martin Luther King Jr., NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

“All of these movements fought for so long and so hard and it is at this moment that we live in their legacy and stand on their shoulders,” he said. “And certainly we stand on the shoulders of Rep. John Lewis who passed away yesterday and the Rev. C.V. Vivian who died within hours later.”

Judy Lerma, 75, brought her granddaughter Layla Lerma, 13, to the event she said was a survival issue.

The grandmother said she believed race is an artificial construct that was invented to divide the people of the nation.

“We’re all the same; we’re all equal,” Layla said. “It’s been happening for way too long in the United States of America. It really is just unfair.”

Robin Jerstad / Contributor Activists walk along Santa Rosa Street during the Jericho March on Saturday. Protesters marched from Columbus Park to the SAPD headquarters and later to the Sheriff's Office.