Hundreds march Saturday as protests continue
Supporters gathered at the Police Operations Center in Norfolk
Raymond Brothers spent Friday night standing side-by-side with Black Lives Matter 757 supporters in downtown Norfolk, protesting in response to the death of George Floyd.
Saturday afternoon, Brothers did it again.
He and hundreds of supporters gathered about 1 p.m. at the Police Operations Center in Norfolk on E. Virginia Beach Boulevard.
Brothers is white, and said white people who are silent right now aren’t the main issue, but are part of the problem.
“If you can stomach seeing a black unarmed man handcuffed being held down by three officers, and one of the officers had his knee on his neck for nine minutes and you’re not outraged by that, I don’t know what else to tell you to do but just to join us,” he said, referring to the death of Floyd, a black man, after an encounter with a white Minneapolis police officer on Monday.
Audra Sullivan, who is white, held a sign: “Dark skin is not a crime.”
The Virginia Beach native, 22, said she’s sick of the lack of accountability for police officers. She said there needs to be more white allies.
Local groups aren’t calling for violent protests, Brothers said, but emotions do run high when people feel like they need to be heard.
At one point, Brothers asked protesters if they’d ever been called “boy” or asked why they were in a certain neighborhood. Among the sea of protesters, black and brown hands shot into the air.
Linei Woodson, the Student Government Association President at Norfolk State University, spoke several times. She said some people see this as a black vs. white issue, but it isn’t.
“This is everyone’s fight against racism,” she said. “To see all these people out here, all these different colors and nationalities, it makes me proud. We can’t say that we’re proud to be American and we hate each other.”
This fight has been going on for a long time, she said.
“We’re going to be the change,” she said. “We’re going to show everybody in America today, no justice, there is no peace.”
The group marched down Virginia Beach Boulevard, visited Norfolk State University and the Huntersville community. Afterward, Norfolk Police Chief Larry Boone spoke in front of the operations center.
“You’ve shown the whole world how it’s done,” he said, telling the group that he heard them.
The crowd wanted to know what Boone planned to do about the issues black people face when it comes to law enforcement, and encouraged him to join the march. He agreed, wanting them to see that “all police officers aren’t bad.”
Boone said there are good and bad cops, and he has investigated some bad ones who were fired.
“It’s not about who’s bad,” one woman said. “It’s about who’s dying.”
Regarding bad cops, Brothers asked if there’s a way for the public to look up complaints against officers. Boone said there wasn’t.
“That should happen,” Brothers said.
Shortly before 4 p.m. Boone and a few other officers marched with the crowd, stopping to talk more at a nearby intersection.
Jaida Townsend, 22, talked to Assistant Chief Michael Maslow, the head of investigations, about bridging the community.
“We talked about how trust can be built because we feel like that’s where the disconnect is,” she said. “We feel like they’re not listening, and they feel like we’re not listening.”
She thinks it’d be nice to see more community events —cookouts and fundraisers — in neighborhoods, such as Norview. That way, children who can’t go downtown, can attend.
“A lot of children don’t have transportation,” she said.
As for the event organizer, Brothers was adamant that the protest took off with the help of the community, not just one organization.
When asked about the fight for justice and white people being allies, he said white people need to use their voices.
“White people need to use their privilege to speak for the people who aren’t listened to,” he said. “Right now, that’s the black community. All lives cannot matter until black lives matter.”