Local response to the two recent shootings of black men by police officers was swift and strong in Denver, with two events held on Thursday night and one to be held Friday at the University of Denver.
“Once again black bodies have been deemed worthless,” said the Rev. Timothy Tyler, pastor of Shorter AME Church in Denver, who is now in Philadelphia at the national church’s convention where he’s running to become a bishop. “The tyranny of police misconduct against African Americans is caught on tape again. We are sick about it and sick and tired of it.
Because he’s out of town, he and his wife, Nita Mosby Tyler, will join the protest march in Philadelphia. “I pray that decent people everywhere will rise up and say enough is enough!” he said in an email.
Hundreds of people marched along the 16th Street Mall to protest recent shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and the protests ended at the Capitol.
Protesters held hands as they chanted “We gon’ be all right” and “black lives matter,” down the mall and then to the Capitol. The protesters marched to Civic Center and said they will stay at the park for 135 hours, which, they said, represents the number of black people killed by police officers in 2015.
Denver police escorted the protesters and blocked traffic on 14th Avenue from turning onto Lincoln, in front of the Capitol where protesters were gathered.
“People can be gunned down so easily,” Anthony Jones, an onlooker said. “I don’t think (police dying in Dallas) is what any of these people are looking for. They’re here just as much for the police officers as they are the victims.”
People gathered Thursday night at the Whittier Cafe for a community discussion about the latest shootings.
“It’s been a place where people come to express themselves after a few of the killings,” said owner Millete Birhanemaskel , referring to shootings of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Walter Scott.
“We’re exhausted and devastated, and there’s a frustration about where do we go from here and how many more protests can we have?”
A sit-in started on Thursday night to support the local Black Lives Matter movement at Civic Center park.
And at noon on Friday, people are gathering at the Driscoll Gallery inside the Driscoll Student Center at the University of Denver. A moment of silence will be followed by conversation where people can talk about their concerns and make a commitment to do more to help solve the problem, said Tracey Adams-Peters, Director of Inclusive Excellence at the University of Denver.
“People are wanting to do something, and that’s really poignant,” she said. “It’s beyond rhetoric. It’s action.”
As President Barack Obama addressed the nation in an emotional press conference from Warsaw, Peters in Denver simultaneously spoke about some of the same issues he raised, from checking conscious and unconscious bias to creating a sense of urgency.
Actions can range from systemic to personal, she said, and personal actions can be simple.
“Have you checked on how your individual black friends are doing?” she said. “Do you know them well enough to just say, ‘I’m thinking of you, and hope you’re OK?'”
As an African-American woman “on a predominantly white campus, it affects me in different ways,” she said. “I bring it to work with me. I walk around campus and wonder how familiar I am to people, and whether I might fit a profile that might require additional scrutiny.”
The outrage erupting across the country over the latest shootings is different from some of the past cases, she said, especially because Philando Castile’s fiancee live-streamed a video of him bleeding to death after he was shot by a police officer in Minnesota after being pulled over for a broken taillight and explaining that he had a concealed carry permit for a gun.
“We looked at those videos and we watched those men die before our eyes,” she said.
Another personal action, she said, is refraining from judgement.
“All too often the individuals who are victims are castigated,” she said. “We want to look at their history, their (police) records, see how many arrests they had, and to determine whether they were doing what they were told to do. Let’s suspend judgement and just listen. Let’s not give excuses.”
It would also be helpful to stop saying “All lives matter,” she said.
“No one ever said all lives don’t matter, and right now, it’s feeling like black lives don’t matter.”
