Groups join forces to bolster police shooting protest, call for 'war' against Hoover

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Several groups have joined forces to bolster the protest over the Hoover police shooting at the Riverchase Galleria on Thanksgiving night and are calling for a "war" against the entire city of Hoover.

On Wednesday night, members of groups such as the Nation of Islam, Black Lives Matter, New Black Panther Party and Jefferson County Millennial Democrats gathered at Muhammad Mosque No. 69 in Birmingham for a “Justice for E.J. Community Forum.” An estimated 200 people were in the standing-room-only organizational meeting.

Speakers said it’s time to rally the troops for a war to get justice for Emantic “E.J.” Bradford Jr., who was shot and killed by a Hoover police officer on Nov. 22 as the officer responded to another shooting in the mall — and the target of that war is the entire city of Hoover.

Protesters and Bradford’s family have said the shooting was unjustified and that the police officer should be charged with capital murder. The attorney for Bradford’s family said Bradford was shot three times from behind as he fled the scene of the shooting.

Hoover police have placed the officer on administrative leave while the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency investigates Bradford’s shooting and the shooting of an 18-year-old Birmingham man and 12-year-old girl.

Hoover officials have said the investigation is out of their hands and pleaded with the public to be patient, but protesters are demanding action even before the investigation is complete.

THREATS TO ESCALATE THE 'WAR'

On Wednesday night, speakers at the mosque made it clear this “war” is about much more than Bradford’s death and is about to escalate.

Carlos Chaverst Jr., one of the protest leaders, said they will continue almost daily protests in Hoover and are preparing for a huge protest next week.

Cara McClure, another leader, said they are bringing in people from out of state this weekend to train people here how to effectively conduct protests.

“It’s time to go to jail. We’re going to do some arrestable actions,” McClure said. “It’s our time to fight. … I’m bringing in folks from all across the country to prepare for battle because we’re going to shut down Hoover.”

Tremon Muhammad, the student minister for Muhammad Mosque No. 69, said this protest is even bigger than Bradford. “E.J.’s life was sacrificed for a bigger cause,” Muhammad said.

Ben Crump, a civil rights lawyer from Florida who is the lead attorney for Bradford’s family, said black people have been victims of a racist criminal justice system for many years. While black men make up only 7 percent of the U.S. population, they make up more than 40 percent of the people in prison and almost 50 percent of the people on Death Row, Crump said.

“Either black men are some evil, nefarious, thuggist, criminal-minded people, or the criminal justice system is broken,” Crump said. “I refuse to believe that black men are worse than any other men walking the face of the Earth.”

Le’Darius Hilliard, president of the Jefferson County Millennial Democrats, said black men all over the country have been killed for being black, and now it’s happening here in Alabama.

“There’s no way I can sit here and believe that we’re here in Birmingham, Alabama — the heart of the civil rights movement — and we have these fantastic genes that come from power and strength and struggle and pain, that we can’t overcome this situation we’re facing today,” Hilliard said.

A NEW MARTIN LUTHER KING AND MALCOLM X?

Hilliard described himself as being like Martin Luther King Jr. because he believes in nonviolent protesting, and described Chaverst as being like Malcolm X, who challenged his followers to defend themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary.”

Hilliard said the protesters are in a phase now that if authorities don’t know that protesters aren’t playing with them, no change will take place.

“If we don’t shut down traffic on I-65 and make everybody that’s getting off work feel very uncomfortable for three to four hours and we don’t walk into Walmart and clear the whole building out and no sales tax dollars are being made and we don’t clean out parking lots all across the city of Hoover that’s selling and making sales tax dollars in the city of Hoover — If we don’t shut the whole city of Hoover down, nothing will happen,” Hilliard said.

The fatal shooting of 20-year-old Bonita Carter by Birmingham police in 1979 led to massive demonstrations and the election of Birmingham’s first black mayor and later a black police chief, but what did the black community win, Hilliard asked. “Now is the time to build on the momentum that is already set,” he said. “The nation is watching us now. … We need to continue to fight for freedom and justice.”

Muhammad said police have no problem arresting black people who are killers, “but we want justice when it comes to those rogue police officers.”

TARGETING HOOVER

At Wednesday night’s meeting, Muhammad played a video clip from a Louis Farrakhan speech he said was in Birmingham in 1990. In the clip, Farrakhan told the crowd that when Birmingham elected a black mayor, whites began to flee the city, and when blacks began to move into formerly all-white neighborhoods, whites began to move out.

“They took their money and their businesses, and they set up a new town — a new city, and they called it Hoover,” Farrakhan said. “They built up shopping malls to attract you from Birmingham, that you will spend your money in Hoover where you don’t live. Hoover’s tax base will be able to expand from your money, that they may give to their citizens.”

Farrakhan encouraged black people to quit spending their money in Hoover and instead take over downtown Birmingham and build it up.

Muhammad said “we didn’t heed the call 28 years ago, but we’ve got to heed it now. Hoover does not want us there, so we have to build up our own city, build up our own people.”

Muhammad, talked about a need to protect the black-owned businesses in Hoover as protesters conduct an economic boycott of the city.

“We’re going to have to put our brainpower together to figure out how to get the least amount of casualties of war,” Muhammad said. “That’s what this is — it’s war.”

Muhammad also said the Nation of Islam is not on the front lines in the protests because “the Nation of Islam does not subscribe to the theory of nonviolence.

“If we go out there, we ain’t going out there to play. If we go out there, and we get engaged in combat, … If they touch one of our sisters or hit one of our young people or hit one of the brothers, we’re not out there just to fight,” Muhammad said. “Everybody and everything got to die on sight.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Friday, Carlos Chaverst took issue with the idea that protesters want a physical "war" with the city of Hoover. In the past, he has said the intent of the protests is not to harm anyone physically, but if they are met with force, they will respond and act accordingly.

Faya Ora Rose Toure, a civil rights activist and attorney from Selma, told the crowd there has been no movement in civil rights in Alabama for a long time.

“Alabama has been too silent, too long,” she said. “We are at a critical stage in our struggle, but I am encouraged because there is a movement going on in Birmingham, Alabama. Nobody should go to Hoover to buy a single thing.”

Chaverst said protesters are just beginning the fight in Hoover.

“Hoover is already on the decline economically,” he said. “They’re going broke, and we’re going to help them go broke. … We have shut down the Riverchase Galleria. We have shut down the movie theater. We’ve shut down the Sam’s Club in Hoover. We have stopped these happy white folk from lighting up a Christmas tree. We went to the mayor’s house and interrupted his entire Ross Bridge neighborhood. We will shut down every single thing in Hoover until justice is served not only for this family, but until we make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

OTHER BLACK VOICES

Meanwhile, others in the black community are taking a more moderate stance.

Eric Guster, a black Birmingham attorney, said in a Facebook video to thousands of followers that he isn’t taking sides on the issue but wanted to explain some of the legal issues involved in the case.

Even if evidence indicates the Hoover police officer shot Bradford from behind, the shooting still could be ruled justified if it is determined the officer feared for his life or the life of someone else in the mall, Guster said. He compared it to someone shooting an intruder in their home from behind when the intruder is attacking their children.

In active shooter situations, officers don’t necessarily have to give verbal commands before they shoot, Guster said. And officers are trained to shoot to kill in such situations, he said. “You don’t shoot to hurt. You eliminate the threat,” he said. “Even if a person’s back is turned, if they fear for the life of someone else, they can use deadly force.”

Also, Guster said he’s aggravated that a black man was shot by the police, but he doesn’t have all the information. He would like to see the videos of the shooting, he said.

However, from a legal perspective, “it’s very important that they don’t share the video (right now),” Guster said. “When you have hundreds of witnesses, dozens and probably hundreds of witnesses, you don’t want them to see information you are about to ask them about because people will lie and change their testimony to shape what they saw in reference to a shooting or an event.

“They need to make sure that the investigation is carried out properly, and it does take time,” Guster said. “It’s probably right that they don’t release that tape until they complete the investigation because it’s going to absolutely taint the investigation if it’s released.”

People could try to intimidate witnesses seen on the video to testify a certain way, and the jury pool could be tainted as well, he said. “You want to make sure the investigation is carried out thoroughly and it comes to a fair conclusion.”

Guster said he does take issue with police allowing the Riverchase Galleria to reopen to the public about eight hours after the shootings take place.

“The entire 2.5 million square feet of the mall is a crime scene,” he said. “It’s shameful that they opened the mall so fast.”

When the mall reopened at 6 a.m. the next morning, people could have disturbed evidence, Guster said. There were reports of police finding a gun in the Santa’s Village area of the mall the next day after the mall reopened.

Go here for more stories related to the Riverchase Galleria shootings.

This story was updated on Dec. 7 to include a direct quote from the Wednesday meeting in which Muhammad Mosque No. 69 Student Minister described this as a "war" against Hoover and a comment from another protest leader, Carlos Chaverst Jr., who took issue with the characterization of this as a "war."