Police protest shuts Mill Avenue Bridge
Tempe incidents subject of gathering; 3 arrested
Three women were arrested Thursday morning during a protest against recent police actions that ended up shutting down a portion of the Mill Avenue bridge.
The protest began at Tempe Beach Park at 11 a.m. and included family members of Dalvin Hollins, Dravon Ames, Jacob Harris and Edward Brown. Hollins, Harris and Brown all were shot by police officers, while Ames was involved in a controversial shoplifting arrest with Phoenix police caught on video that has drawn widespread attention.
The event was hosted by All Black Lives Matter Arizona, according to the protest’s Facebook event page. Organizers specifically decried what they described as a smear campaign by Tempe police after the department last week released body camera footage of Ames’ October 2018 DUI arrest.
Protesters referred to it as a “coordinated campaign of character assassination” that police “hoped would undermine the credibility of the case the community is making against police injustice.”
A handful of protesters trickled in to the park shortly after 11 a.m., holding signs with phrases such as “Fire the Cops” and “Justice and Accountability from AZ Law Enforcement.”
It was a relatively quiet event until a man jogging in the park stopped to criticize their message, telling them to “shut the hell up” and calling them “wussies.”
An expletive-filled argument ensued and lasted several minutes, until the man eventually left the group and continued his run.
Dalvin Hollins’ stepfather, Frederick Franklin, called for more police accountability at the event, saying “there should be no more deaths of unarmed children.” Franklin said his emotions were even higher because the threeyear anniversary of Hollins’ death was quickly approaching.
Franklin said he wants police to release body camera footage showing his 19-year-old stepson’s death so that the family will finally know what happened on July 27, 2016.
Hollins was suspected of robbing a drugstore pharmacy near McClintock Drive and Guadalupe Road and was fatally shot as he fled from police toward a nearby senior center.
“I believe in God and I know God will reveal the truth,” Franklin said.
“He will reveal the truth when the time is right.”
Franklin wants long-term change to come to local police departments, but said he doesn’t have much hope because of the experiences he’s had throughout his life.
“I come up from LA and it was bad where I was at,” he said. “All my life I’ve been dealing with this. It’s not changed, as a matter of fact, it’s getting worse because they killed my son.”
Edward Brown, who was paralyzed from the chest down after being shot in the back by a Phoenix police officer in August 2018, called for the ouster of Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir, among others in the department.
“They have changed my life dramatically and they’re still allowed to be on the force,” Brown said, referring to police officers accused of using excessive force.
The group eventually grew to about two dozen people and moved from the northwest corner of Rio Salado Boulevard and Mill Avenue toward the Mill Avenue bridge, which they planned to shut down in protest.
Police had already blocked vehicle traffic heading onto the west Mill Avenue bridge by the time the protesters moved into the roadway.
Phoenix activist the Rev. Jarrett Maupin led the group in prayer, starting with a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and then going into another prayer, during which he said that “Jesus was a victim of police brutality.”
The end of his prayer was interrupted by a Tempe police loudspeaker that told the protesters they were “creating a hazard” and were subject to arrest if they did not leave the roadway.
Most of the group returned to the sidewalk, but three women remained standing in the road as officers got out of their vehicles and approached them.
They told the women that they had one more chance to leave the road before they would be arrested. The women did not respond to their orders, prompting the officers to put handcuffs on each of them and usher them into the back of a police van.
During the arrests, the other protesters criticized the nearly one dozen officers called to detain the three unarmed women.
After the arrests, the group largely disbanded and police reopened access to the bridge.
In a statement, Tempe police said they were made aware of the “small protest” in advance and devoted resources to “protect the protesters and the public.”
The statement went on to say they were not yet able to release the names of the arrested women.