Activists remember Ma’khia Bryant, others killed by police
Surrounding a makeshift altar with candles, flowers and signs of “Justice for Ma’khia” and “Justice for Breonna,” about 20 activists and Black Lives Matter supporters gathered at the National Civil Rights Museum Sunday to remember Black women who were killed by police and to, once again, call for police defunding.
The fatal shooting of 16-year-old Ma’khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, by a police officer last week added new urgency to the issue for Official Black Lives Matter Memphis chapter activist Amber Sherman, who organized the gathering.
“We’re here to honor and defend Black girls,” said Sherman. “As we saw this week, Black girls are under attack… It’s really important that we honor and remember that Black girls have a right to live.
“Me as a fat Black woman, I know what it’s like to be automatically seen as violent, and her, as a taller, hefty Black girl, is often seen as violent, and that’s what the police saw. They didn’t see a girl who needed help. They saw a girl who needed to be mowed down.”
Police body camera footage, however, showed Bryant was shot by the police officer as she lunged toward a woman with a knife who was pinned against a car.
But Sherman, who also read off the names of Black women killed by the police during the gathering, and other speakers said defunding the police could lead to more money being used to battle the dysfunction and injustice that led to Ma’khia’s death.
“When we protest for higher wages, they send the police,” said Josh Adams. “When we protest for health care, they send the police. When we protest to stop layoffs, they send the police. When we protest to take down racist statues, they send the police.
“The question is: ‘At what point do we begin to realize that our government is failing to provide, as they said they would, domestic tranquility?’
“We don’t need to reform police. We don’t need to reform prisons. We need to reform our communities.”
Therapy, mental health and other interventions are needed in struggling communities, not more police, Adams said.
Sherman said when budget time comes, the community must demand that the millions being allocated for law enforcement be used to enrich communities, not police them.
“As we get closer to budget hearings for the upcoming fiscal year, we want to make it clear, divesting from police and investing into our communities is our top priority,” she said.