Group forms to continue nightly protests
`The Movement' wants face-to-face with Oklahoma City police chief
A few dozen protesters from a new, organized group of youth called The Movement continue to occupy space outside of the Oklahoma City Police Department to draw attention to police brutality and racism amid national protests.
On Tuesday evening, a handful of young individuals gathered outside of police headquarters
downtown before walking to the intersection of
Classen Boulevard and NW 23.
A police helicopter flew overhead, and several Oklahoma City police units patrolled nearby, but there were no interactions with officers once the group left police headquarters.
The gathering slowly dispersed from then on, with a last group meeting taking place a little after midnight.
V ea dr ex, a young, black leader within The Movement who declined to share his last name due to safety concerns, said The Movement is a group of “young, passionate, dedicated youth” who currently plan to organize around issues of police brutality.
They will continue to show up and protest until a conversation directly with Police Chief Wade Gourley takes place, he said.
“The goal tonight was to continue to ask the chief to come out and address our voices ,” Veadrex, 23, said.
“We believe in you and have faith in you in what you can do as the chief of police, but we are saying re connect .... Things would calm down if you would say` I hear you, and I'm listening. I will work as hard asp ossible on top of what I'm already doing to make sure what you are saying goes somewhere.'”
Many individuals who were present Tuesday night said they had been involved with protests for more than a week.
In the future, The Movement will identify and organize behind other objectives and issues it finds important, Veadrex added.
“Our fight here will slow down or stop only once the issues that we are pressing are addressed,” he said.
“But The Movement itself does not stop because this is just one of many objectives we will have.”