Photo credit: Greg Cruz, Flipsquad Photography
On January 2, 30 activists converged on Fredd Atkins Park in Sarasota’s Newtown neighborhood to honor the memory of Tamir Rice and to demand an end to police killings of Black and Latino youth.
Last November, Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy, was killed by two white police officers in Cleveland while playing with a toy gun in a park. Police drove their vehicle directly up to Rice, shooting him without warning. On December 28, it was announced that the officers would not face charges.
Activists with ANSWER Suncoast, Newtown Nation, and others blocked the intersection of N. Washington Blvd and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way for ten minutes. In the very spot where Sarasota County sheriffs took the life of Rodney Mitchell in 2012, demonstrators chanted and locked arms as traffic piled up, police issued threats, and a helicopter circled overhead.
“I’m here today because I really believe in the work we’re doing and the fight we’re part of, and that it’s necessary for us to be truly free, free from fear, to stop dying these spiritual deaths as well as these physical deaths on a daily basis,” said Ashley Green of Dream Defenders.
In 2015, young Black men were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by police officers in 2015, according to the Guardian’s study of 1,134 deaths by police last year. Like in the case of Tamir Rice, many of the killings were unjustified murders.
“I’m not surprised by the lack of justice. But I’m shocked by the lack of humanity. I’m shocked and I’m hurt and I grieve every day for these people,” Shakira Refos told Liberation News.
Refos, a Sarasota community organizer and former board member of ALSO Youth, remembers becoming aware of the Black Lives Matter movement as protests erupted for Trayvon Martin in 2012. She got involved in 2014 when Tampa Bay Times portrayed Angelia Mangum and Tjhisha Ball, two murdered Black women, as criminals, using their mugshots and devoting an undue amount of attention to their unrelated misdemeanor charges.
“I think the judicial system has to change. California is not using grand juries anymore when it comes to police killings. I also think it’s really important that the people investigating these crimes are not submerged in whatever culture that is. Accountability has to come from somewhere outside the prosecutor’s office,” said Refos, who believes body cameras and better training are also steps in the right direction.
In Sarasota and Bradenton, lack of independent oversight fosters a culture of corruption among law enforcement and distrust in the community. The killing of Rodney Mitchell by sheriffs in 2012, a clear murder, went unpunished when the district attorney declined to prosecute. The death of Elias Guadarrama in 2014 also has not received an independent investigation despite family and friends’ rejection of the police account of “suicide.”
“I think it’s a moral responsibility to go out there and help when you can help and fight for justice when you can fight for it,” said Thomas Anderson, who is part of the organization Black America. “What happened to Tamir Rice and Sandra Bland are tragedies and this has been happening for a long time in this country.
“We need to change our laws to respect the rights of everyone. Right now the police are policing themselves and it’s ineffective. It doesn’t work because they can’t be trusted. They have the code of blue silence,” Anderson told Liberation.
After taking the streets, activists drew into a circle near the Fredd Atkins gazebo. There they heard the wisdom of Lou Murray, lifelong civil rights activist and Newtown Nation member, who praised the courageous act of civil disobedience. They also heard from Omega Velez, mother of Elias Guadarrama, who gave an impassioned call for the community to help fight for justice for her son. Join the January 30 march for Guadarrama in
Bradenton and help spread the word!
Justice for Tamir Rice! Justice for Rodney Mitchell! Justice for Elias Guadarrama!
