Protesters of police shooting tell Hoover council they're resuming protests in city

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People protesting the Thanksgiving night shooting of a black man by a Hoover police officer at the Riverchase Galleria tonight told the Hoover City Council they are resuming their protests in Hoover.

Carlos Chaverst Jr. and Iva Williams III, leaders in the Birmingham Justice League, said Hoover officials promised to work with the protesters to address their concerns about racism in the city and claims of racial profiling and harassment of black people by Hoover police.

Williams said when he met with Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato and City Administrator Allan Rice in mid-December, he was greatly encouraged by their talk and willingness to listen to protesters’ concerns.

Now, nearly two months later, “I’ve been very disheartened in the fact we haven’t had any further conversations,” Williams said.

The mayor and city administrator have stopped accepting phone calls from the protesters, he said.

One item that was up for discussion was amnesty for the protesters who were arrested and charged with crimes such as disorderly conduct and loitering, Williams said. And now, this Wednesday, those protesters are scheduled to appear in Hoover Municipal Court to face those charges, he said.

The protesters also asked the city to create a Citizens Review Board to address complaints against the city, consider having independent reviews of minority complaints concerning traffic stops in Hoover, put the Police Department through an accreditation process, and hold an annual diversity summit to address issues such as race relations and minority participation in city contracts.

But now protesters are only getting silence, Williams said.

It seems a lot of people just want the protests to go away without addressing some of the larger issues behind them, he said. “These (protests) are about larger issues, more sweeping issues, about social justice in and around our communities and not just this one shooting alone,” he said.

Rice said he and the mayor have met with multiple groups of people who had concerns following the shootings at the Galleria. He confirmed they had a meeting with Williams and listened to protesters’ concerns.

They talked extensively about efforts by city officials in the past two years to be more inclusive in terms of hiring employees, setting contracts with minority-owned and disadvantaged businesses, and making appointments to city boards.

This administration wants to make sure the city government reflects the city’s constituents, Rice said.

But there was never any offer of clemency for protesters who were arrested, he said.

“There were no deals. There were no overtures from us,” Rice said. “We didn’t go behind closed doors and cut any deals with protesters. We didn’t make any promises.”

Rice said Williams is correct in saying city officials cut off communication with members of the Birmingham Justice League because less than 24 hours after their meeting, members of that group were misrepresenting the outcome of that meeting.

“We’re not going to deal with people who are dealing in less than good faith,” Rice said. “We’re going to meet with Hoover residents. We’re going to meet with Hoover business owners. We’re not going to be bullied with a bullhorn. We’re going to start an ongoing, durable, lasting process in our city, but this starts at home. We were willing to meet with everybody, but the idea that we’re allowing agendas to be driven by people who have no investment in this community is just preposterous.”

Williams said his children live in Hoover and there still needs to be conversations about social justice and racial justice. To say that he doesn’t have a right to sit at the table is preposterous, he said.

In a press conference before tonight’s council meeting, Chaverst said he’s tired of people playing games and lying. The protesters are not going anywhere and plan to ramp their activity in Hoover back up until they get justice for Emantic “E.J.”Bradford Jr., the 21-year-old Hueytown man shot by a Hoover police officer at the mall.

Williams said the protesters plan to protest lawfully, but they need some clarification about what kind of protest actually is allowed so that everyone is on the same page about proper boundaries, as far as where people can stand and whether they can use bullhorns. They’ve had some negative interactions with police, who seem to be making up the rules as they go along, he said.

Councilman Casey Middlebrooks said all city ordinances are listed on the city’s website and anyone planning a protest in Hoover should do their due diligence before proceeding.

Chaverst said city ordinances and state law do not supersede rights guaranteed to people in the U.S. Constitution, such as the right to peacefully assemble and protest.

Council President Gene Smith suggested protesters discuss the boundaries for protests with the mayor and police chief.

As Chaverst criticized how police have dealt with protesters, Smith told him he could not speak about the police officers. The two began arguing about freedom of speech, and Smith instructed police to remove Chaverst from the council chambers.

Chaverst said, “Hoover will always be racist because you have people like Mr. Gene Smith who tries to limit voices while we’re simply trying to tell the truth about what’s going on in this city.” As he left the chambers, he said “All of y’all are racists — every single last one of you.”

Earlier in the night, Hoover resident Lisa Singer told the council there are numerous Hoover residents who were very concerned about racist remarks being made in the city after the Galleria shooting and during the earlier protests in November and December.

She asked the council to help create some open dialogue about racial issues that have been simmering below the surface but started to bubble up in recent weeks. Just because the Galleria shooting is not as current right now doesn’t mean the issues have gone away, she said.

“Maybe some of our citizens are not experiencing Hoover the way each of you are,” Singer said. “We talk about what a great, diverse city Hoover is, but diversity doesn’t necessarily mean there is not racism. I think we need to address the racism and talk about how we can get past it. We need to talk about implicit bias that every single one of us has in the way we approach people and the way we understand things that are going on around us and how we can overcome that to be a more unified community.”