Protest group criticizes Phoenix PD
Activists blame police for provoking confrontations
On Monday evening, W.E. Rising Project organizers and supporters held another of the many marches they’ve led through downtown Phoenix toward Phoenix Police Department Headquarters.
“Make sure they know they are not welcome at our protests,” Bruce Franks Jr. said over the megaphone about the police. Franks, who participated in the 2014 Ferguson protests and served on the Missouri House of Representatives before recently moving to Tempe, was tired of officers following their marches. “This ain’t your photo op!”
His message was in stark contrast to the W.E. Rising Project’s first demonstrations, where police officers were invited to march and kneel alongside protesters. The group formed in early June.
Franks said this shift in W.E. Rising’s rhetoric — from tacit compliance with law enforcement to open criticism of police and explicit calls to defund and demilitarize police — is in part because some in the group believe police are harassing them.
While protests in Phoenix against the police killing of George Floyd have been largely characterized as nonviolent, peaceful and compliant, members of W.E. Rising are alleging police have antagonized protesters unprovoked, including swarming and holding back a bus with children that organizers had previously gotten police approval to use during last Saturday’s Arizona Unity March.
Unity March bus stopped after going on light rail tracks
The Arizona Unity March was organized by Kenneth Smith and supported by many organizations including W.E. Rising. About a thousand people joined the march toward the Capitol Building.
A private double-decker bus with loudspeakers was trailing the march carrying people, including several children.
While organizers partnered with police to keep the event safe, some protesters alleged police aggressively surrounded the bus and used their vehicles to push adults who were there to ensure safety of the bus.
Simon Valerez, a protester who has been supportive of W.E. Rising, was at the march Saturday.
He said when he hopped on the bus, an officer told the protesters the bus could not lead the march but would be able follow the march behind police vehicles.
Phoenix Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Mercedes Fortune confirmed the conversation happened.
“There were two vehicles that had asked to be part of that demonstration and those vehicles ... weren’t going to be allowed to be inside with the group just for the safety of everybody that was present,” Fortune said.
Valerez said things were fine until an officer on a motorcycle cut the bus off and police cruisers surrounded the bus.
“There were no problems, but all of a sudden once we got to Monroe Street, that’s when everything started happening,” Valerez said. “All of a sudden I hear people screaming at them, and I almost fell off the bus when it stopped suddenly.”He said, due to oncoming traffic in one direction and officers giving them no place to go, the driver of the bus went onto the light-rail tracks.
“Before we knew it a cop car had pulled behind us and trapped us on the train tracks,” Valerez said.
At this point, police in SUVs allegedly began to drive quickly and aggressively around people who had been walking alongside the bus. Three protesters — James Wilson, Cody Hunt, and Lindsay LeBlanc — said they witnessed the SUVs driving near protesters and said they were each pushed by a cruiser.
A video taken by Wilson shows a police cruiser whipping around quickly toward Wilson and then inching forward, pushing Wilson as he stands in front of the vehicle.
“Why are you pushing me?” Wilson yelled in the video. “We were told to be here!”
Other photos provided to The Arizona Republic show a protester standing between the front of a police vehicle and the bus, in a foot or two of space. Photos provided by protesters also showed a bruise on Lindsay LeBlanc’s thigh she claimed was caused by a cruiser hitting her.
Valerez corroborated this account. “Three people went in front of the car,” he said. “The car kept inching forward, despite the man staying put in front of it.”
Fortune said that is not true.
“I will tell you there’s no way a police vehicle was pushing anybody because that’s not what we do,” Fortune said. “We don’t use our vehicles to move crowds.”
LeBlanc repeated that, throughout the incident, the bus driver was attempting to maneuver off of the light rail tracks.
“People were really concerned about why the cops were acting so aggressively toward us,” she said. “We were just trying to move.”
Franks said his 12-year-old daughter was one of several children on the bus during the incident. He said he was separated from her when police blocked the bus, but ran back and witnessed police “antagonizing” people flanking the bus. Franks said his daughter was shaken up and told him the police “had blocked us in.”
“Phoenix Police put dozens of us, including children, in immediate danger. They committed to follow up with accountability,” said Sushil Rao, a demonstrator who was riding on the bus with his 9-year-old niece when the incident took place said. “Nothing yet to show their ability to hold themselves accountable.”
Protesters and police said no one was arrested.
“There was no arrest,” Fortune said. “There were no citations issued to them. There was a lot of communication and there was a lot of talk with them.”
“We did everything you asked!” one protester said to police Monday regarding the incident. Another said that the kids on the bus “with their own eyes saw those who they were told would protect them put them in harm’s way.”
Fortune said the police were only working to protect people.
“We have to ensure the safety of the people is our priority and maybe people may not agree with that and they might not understand it or they might find reasons for not agreeing with that, but those were our intentions for that day,” Fortune said.
Man arrested while leaving Monday protest
At a protest Monday evening, protesters and W.E. Rising organizers claim police again acted aggressively, unprovoked, toward peaceful protesters.
On Tuesday, Phoenix police confirmed a man was arrested Monday evening for blocking the path of a police car and eventually throwing himself into the vehicle.
Jonah Ivy, 21, was arrested for “obstructing governmental operations” when he “continually blocked the path of a mobile police car, threw himself into the vehicle and refused to move,” Phoenix police spokeswoman Sgt. Ann Justus said.
Ivy said he has attended protests every night for weeks, sometimes even handing out pizza to protesters.
“I was walking this mother and her daughter back to her car after the protest,” Jonah told The Republic on Thursday. He said an unmarked police vehicle followed him, and then he turned a corner and multiple police vehicles pulled up and 10 to 15 officers came out wearing gear.
“They never told me what my charge was,” Ivy said. “They still, to this moment, never explicitly told me what I did. They only told me my charge. And that was after like an hour and a half of being detained that they finally told me the charge.”
He said police detained him for 18 hours and money and family heirlooms that were in his wallet were lost and not returned. He said he was charged with obstruction of justice and is scheduled to appear in court August 17.
W.E. Rising organizer Jazlyn Geiger confirmed to The Republic that Ivy is associated with the organization and said he was not blocking a police vehicle.
The W.E. Rising Project Twitter account posted a video of Ivy’s arrest, writing it was “without cause.”
Franks said Ivy was helping people get back to their cars when police arrested him. Police “swarmed one of the nicest, sweetest people in our protest knowing that he’s not gonna resist or cause any issues.”
“We protested non-violently last night and I feel this arrest is intimidation and unjustified,” Rao said. “It communicates to me, the Phoenix Police would rather choose an abuse of power instead of honest, amicable discourse desiring a solution.”
The Republic reached out to other local activist groups about possible concerns with police aggression and did not receive a response by publication.