Nearly 1,000 gather at Hoover City Hall to protest police brutality, racism
An estimated 800 to 1,000 protesters gathered along U.S. 31 next to Hoover City Hall this afternoon, blasting a call to end police brutality and racism.
The protest was organized by a group called Alabama Rally Against Injustice and drew a racially mixed, but mostly white, crowd.
“Our criminal justice system is broken,” said Celida Soto, a Birmingham woman who was the lead organizer. “There is a problem here, and we’re going to unveil it, and we’re going to disrupt it. We’re not going to stand for it. … All lives can’t matter until black lives matter.”
At least 10 people spoke to the crowd for about two hours in the grassy area along U.S. 31, with just a handful of police visible nearby and a police drone hovering overhead.
That portion of the protest ended with a demonstration in which the crowd lay on the ground facedown for at least eight minutes in memory of George Floyd, the black Minneapolis man who died May 25 after a white police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes.
Shortly after that demonstration today, the majority of the crowd left, but about 100 people stayed behind to protest further. They started standing along U.S. 31 and then moved to Municipal Drive. A group of protesters then gathered in the roadway despite police officers’ orders to stay off the road, and police lined up in the road and arrested 23 people on disorderly conduct charges.
Meanwhile, back at the same spot where protesters had their rally, a different group of 30 to 40 people, also racially mixed, gathered for what was designed to be a congenial get-together between police and members of the black community. It was led by a group of mostly black people in their 20s who wanted to build a bridge of understanding with police.
But police never committed to be a part of the social. Police Chief Nick Derzis said earlier this week what the group was trying to do sounded reasonable, but he couldn’t commit police to be there because he didn’t know what else might be happening today.
Indeed, at least 80 Hoover police officers were preoccupied in the faceoff with protesters on Municipal Drive about 100 yards away, as protesters yelled and cussed at them.
The Alabama Rally Against Injustice issued a statement Saturday night, saying the group has hosted numerous protests across the state in the last two weeks, including in Birmingham, Homewood, Hoover, Montgomery, Mountain Brook, Tuscaloosa and Vestavia Hills, and none of those resulted in arrests except the one in Hoover.
“We are not only severely troubled by the fact that Hoover was the only city that has arrested peaceful protestors, but also by the fact that the city refuses to have the difficult conversations necessary to bring about lasting and meaningful change,” the statement said.
“While the arrests happened after Alabama Rally Against Injustice’s event had concluded, we hope the city of Hoover will review their protocols and procedures as it pertains to peaceful protests and that in the future they will be willing to have conversations with the public instead of locking up citizens that are attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights.”
Hoover police spokesman Lt. Keith Czeskleba emphasized that the 23 arrests Saturday were for disorderly conduct and occurred after the Alabama Rally Against Injustice protest concluded.
Devon Earl, a 25-year-old Hoover man who organized the cordial get-together, took time to chat with a couple of police officers who stood along U.S. 31 near his group. Earl said he understood the majority of police were busy, and he plans to try to organize another time to build bridges later.
REFERENCES TO 2018 HOOVER SHOOTING
Of course, the catalyst for recent protests across the nation was the May 25 death of Floyd in Minneapolis. But several speakers at today’s protest referenced the November 2018 death of E.J. Bradford, who was shot by a Hoover police officer at the Riverchase Galleria on Thanksgiving night as police responded to another shooting in the mall.
A 24-page report by the Alabama attorney general’s office said police officers saw Bradford running with a gun toward unarmed people and believed Bradford was about to murder two people and posed a threat to others in the area.
The attorney general determined the police officer who shot Bradford did not commit a crime, but many people in the community still found the shooting unfounded, and some have said it’s just another example of police not showing value for black people.
One white woman who spoke at today’s protest said Hoover has the most brutal, racist police force in the greater Birmingham area.
T. Cariis Ellis, a black minister from The Hill Community Church, said she protested in Hoover two years ago because of Bradford’s death and was criticized for doing so. But she sees it as her duty to speak out for people who are disenfranchised.
“Jesus is one of the best protesters I know,” Ellis said. “You can’t love Jesus and hate me.”
Anna Popinski, a white teenager from Hoover, told the crowd she can walk down her street without fear of what might happen to her, but she said she knows some black people can’t do the same.
She chastised those in the white community who are indifferent to what black people face.
“If you’re not appalled, something’s wrong” Popinski said. “How can you see these things on social media and TV and not care? My heart is broken, and theirs should be, too.”
She challenged her peers to do something. “One voice can make a change,” she said. “Jesus loves people, and we’re called to follow Jesus. He would be out here fighting with us. … Jesus caused disorder in the world. He caused people to look. We being out here changes things. All lives don’t matter until black lives matter.”
EXHAUSTED AND ANGRY
Jazz Linson of Birmingham’s Avondale community said she is exhausted and angry because it isn’t right for black people to continue to be treated unfairly by police. She said she’s not anti-police; many in her family are either military or police, but the good ones need to report the bad apples, she said. She wonders what happens to make people lose their humanity, she said.
“This is basic human rights. What is hard about that? Nothing, absolutely nothing,” she said.
Something has to be done to change what happens in courts, schools, the government and banks, Linson said. She challenged everyone present that if they see injustice, to say something and do something. “I will fight for you. Y’all have to fight for us.”
Soto challenged people to quit shopping in Hoover until the system in Hoover is corrected.
The protests taking place now are making a difference, Soto said. Confederate monuments are coming down across the country, police in Minneapolis and Atlanta are facing charges, and senators in Washington are calling for the end of qualified immunity for police officers, she said.
The effort can’t stop until a complete overhaul of the nation’s public policy system is achieved, Soto said.
“Our lives depend on this movement,” Soto said. “My sons’ lives depend on this movement.”
BUILDING BRIDGES
Later in the day, some people who showed up for the possibility of a social get-together with police said they also want to see change.
Robby Ashford, a black 2020 graduate from Hoover High who is headed to the University of Oregon to play football and baseball, said he wants to see the world get better, but he’s not as antagonistic toward police as some of the protesters.
“Everybody’s just so quick to bash on every cop. Every cop’s not bad,” Ashford said. “We have to separate the bad people from the good people.”
Kaleb Baugh, a 2013 black graduate of Hoover High School who now lives in Huntsville, drove down to Hoover to show the police here that not everybody hates them.
Yes, people are very angry when police mistreat people and don’t want that to happen again, but everybody’s not all about violence, rioting and looting, Baugh said. He would rather build understanding between police and the community and show love, support and care, he said.
Wynell Gilbert, a black woman who lives in Trace Crossings, brought her two sons who go to Hoover High and Bumpus Middle School with her. She said she likes to see young people step up and show leadership to seek improvement in a positive way and build better relationships.
The head football coaches for Hoover and Spain Park high schools also were present at the second gathering.
This article was updated several times, most recently at 4:23 p.m. on Sunday, June 7, with the number of arrests made by Hoover police Saturday and the reason given for those arrests.