“No Justice. No Peace. No
Racist Police.”
Over
a
thousand
people
gathered around the Detroit
Public Safety Headquarters for
the March Against the Police on
Friday in response to incidents of
police brutality across the nation.
As they were social distancing
and
wearing
masks,
people
chanted “No Justice. No Peace.
No Racist Police.” People of all
ages, races and backgrounds were
present to support the Black Lives
Matter movement. Wayne State
University freshman Cameron
Hawkins said he marched to
fight for his life as a Black male in
America.
“My greatest fear in the world
is getting killed by a police
officer and I don’t think that’s
something that I should have to
worry about,” Hawkins said.
Organizers
from
Metro-
Detroit Political Action Network,
Occupy Detroit, Abolish ICE
Detroit, March for Black Women
Detroit, Progessive Caucus of the
Michigan Democratic Party and
Detroit Anarchist Black Cross
hosted the event and invited
multiple people to speak at the
rally.
Demands
from
the
rally
organizers included justice for
Sha’Teina and Dan Grady El, the
release of non-violent prisoners
due to COVID-19, justice for
George Floyd, freedom for the
Los
Angeles
and
Minnesota
protesters, the discontinuation
the use of facial recognition
technology in law enforcement,
immediate
termination
of
employment
and
criminal
charges for police officers that
demonstrate excessive force, and
an end to mass incarceration.
Jazmine
Middlebrooks,
an
organizer from March for Black
Women Detroit, spoke on the
actions that need to be taken
to handle racism. She said the
best way for white people to
be an ally of the Black Lives
Matter Movement is to intervene
whenever they encounter racism.
Saturday afternoon, hundreds
of community members gathered
at the University of Michigan
Diag
and
marched
through
Ann Arbor in protest of recent
incidents
of
police
brutality
against Black Americans that
shook the nation. In his opening
address to the crowd, Ann Arbor
resident Myles McGuire, the sole
organizer of the event, called it a
“civil rights protest.”
“Here we are, putting our lives
in danger during a pandemic to
protest civil rights,” McGuire
said. “Not equal — civil. We’re
asking people to be civil. Asking.
We should not have to ask for
civil fucking rights. We should
not have to fear that our brothers
and our sisters and our mothers
and our fathers are going to be
slaughtered by the ones meant to
protect us and save us and help
govern our communities.”
McGuire
commented
on
the
diversity
of
the
crowd
gathered
before
him,
which
was predominantly young and
multiracial.
“We
have
to
be
in
this
together,” McGuire said. “This is
not going to start and end with
Black people. It’s not going to
start and end with cops. It has to
be done together.”
After asking the crowd “Are
you with me?” McGuire invited
protesters to follow him across
the
Diag
towards
the
State
Street shopping area. Protesters
marched
throughout
the
downtown streets, holding signs
and chanting, “Hands up, don’t
shoot,” “Black lives matter” and
“No justice, no peace.”
Ann Arbor resident Kash Rai
held up a sign reading, “Our skin
color is not a crime.” He said he
wanted to send a message that
law enforcement should treat all
citizens equally, regardless of
race.
“It’s mostly about white cops
treating
colored
people
less
than they would treat another
white person, such as a noise
complaint,” Rai said. “It’s ‘Hey,
shut this party down,’ to a Black
person versus, ‘Can you just turn
it down?’ to a white person, which
I’ve experienced personally.”
Rasem Piromarm, a recent
graduate
of
Caledonia
High
School, said he found out about
the protest from his cousin who
lives in Ann Arbor. Having grown
up facing discrimination in his
predominantly white township,
Piromarm said he came as a show
of solidarity,
“All I grew up hearing was,
‘You’re a terrorist. You’re a
bomber,’ because I’m Muslim,”
Piromarm said. “It was like it
was me against the world … And
I relate so much to what’s going
Thursday, June 4, 2020
INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 116
© 2020 The Michigan Daily
NEWS ....................................
PHOTO SPREAD ..................
OPINION ...............................
ARTS........................................
MiC.........................................
SPORTS................................
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‘This is another pandemic’: protesters take to the streets in Ann Arbor
Read more at michigandaily.com
CALDER LEWIS &
JULIANNA MORANO
Summer News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
Demanding Justice, Demanding Peace
Photo by Dominick Sokotoff
Thousands gather to protest racism in Detroit
JASMIN LEE
Summer Managing News Editor
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
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