PEACEFUL PROTEST, PEACEFUL POLICING
MPD Chief Davis made the right decision during Palestine march
I commend Chief Davis and the Memphis Police Department for how these two protests were handled. I am especially pleased that she and her officers respected the First Amendment rights held by those who protested, “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Just recently, Vice President Kamala Harris paid homage to the brave civil rights protesters who 59 years ago marched on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. h Vice President Harris led thousands in a peaceful walk across the bridge in the annual commemoration of what became known as Bloody Sunday.
On March 7, 1965, voting rights marchers led by a young John Lewis and Hosea Williams were viciously beaten by Alabama law officers as they attempted to cross the same bridge en route to Montgomery.
Black men, women and children were tear gassed and beaten with wooden clubs, whips, and rubber tubing. Though the protesters were violently forced back, they did not fight back.
It is worth noting that what happened that historic day on the Pettus Bridge 59 years ago was in stark contrast to how Memphis law officers more recently handled protesters on the bridges here.
Chief Davis did the opposite of what happened on Pettus Bridge
During the February 3, 2024, protest organized by Memphis Voices for Palestine and Palestinian Memphians, hundreds of protesters that included children and disabled individuals blocked traffic on the Hernando de Soto Bridge that connects Tennessee and Arkansas.
See BAILEY, Page 2V