More than one hundred people, many new to protesting, gathered at Pine and 4th streets in Seattle for the National Moment of Silence, locally convened by Mothers for Police Accountability and the John T. Williams Organizing Committee. Rev. Harriet Walden welcomed participants, saying, “It’s a war in America; we are here to stand up for democracy.”
The diverse, mostly young demonstrators maintained silence for 40 minutes. The home-made signs spoke volumes: from “Mourn for Mike Brown” to “It’s not right for the old to bury the dead. It’s not right” to “‘Oh yes, I’ll say it plain, America has never been America to me’ #BlackLivesMatter #PleaseDon’tShoot.”
Liberation News spoke with some of the participants. Raz said, “It really does concern me what happens to young Black men because I have 10 grandsons, age from 29 to 5, so that’s what concerns me right now. Something ought to be done, because we can’t be living like this.”
Liberation also spoke with Jennifer, who said: “I’m just here to show solidarity all the way from the other side of the country, it’s easy to feel helpless when you are watching from afar, especially with the inaccuracies in the media, it’s so hard to get the real story. So I just really really wanted to come out and be here with some like-minded people and show that even from this far away we care and we support ending this kind of nonsense.”
Janjay Innis told this reporter: “I came to be together with the masses to say this is not OK. For too long this has been happening, in silence, and voices have not been raised, but I believe the community comes together and is righteously angry about injustice and we can do something about it.”
