(Photo/Rachel M. Cohen)
Protesters took the streets of Baltimore on Thursday night, following the announcement that Daniel Pantaleo, the white New York City police officer who used a chokehold to kill Eric Garner, a black man, would not be indicted. Garner's death at Pantaleo's hands was captured on video shot by a bystander, who recorded Garner gasping for air, saying "I can't breathe." The protests, which succeeded in shutting down the city's annual holiday lighting event early, came three days after Baltimore's mayor vetoed a bill that would have required police officers to start wearing body cameras.
Baltimore protesters marched not only for Eric Garner of New York, Michael Brown of Ferguson and Tamir Rice of Cleveland-but also for Tyrone West and Anthony Anderson, two unarmed Baltimore black men who died at the hands of the police in 2013. As in the cases of Garner, Brown and Rice, cops faced no charges following the deaths of West and Anderson.
Every Wednesday since July 2013, community members have gathered outside of Baltimore City Hall, calling for the police to be charged with the homicide of Tyrone West. While an independent review issued this past August concluded that the officers did not use excessive force, several witnesses insist they saw cops kick West in the head, spray him with mace, hit him with batons and pull him by his dreadlocks.
Tawanda Jones, Tyrone West's sister, traveled to New York City earlier this year to meet with Eric Garner's parents. When news broke on Wednesday that the officer who killed Garner would not be indicted, the weekly City Hall were protesters further riled.
"They had eyewitnesses in my brother's case and they did nothing," Jones told Baltimore's local ABC affiliate on Wednesday night.
"But I thought, O.K., [the Garners] have this video that went viral, that everybody saw all over the world, that something at least was going to get done."
"One of our major demands is to indict killer police," an organizer said to a crowd gathered by the Washington Monument on Thursday night. "It's not enough just to put cameras on them. They have to be indicted."
When the Maryland legislative session opens next month, Baltimore residents plan to head to Annapolis, the state capital, to pressure the state legislature
to repeal key components of the Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights
-a statute which many argue impedes meaningful civilian review of police and prevents the disciplining and firing of bad cops. On November 22, the city held a public hearing on law enforcement reform where community leaders, activists, citizens and cops spoke out for nearly three hours. As The Afro, a newspaper that serves the black community, reports, Diane Butler, the aunt that raised Tyrone West, spoke at the hearing and challenged the Baltimore police present in the room on their brutal behavior.
"When was the beating supposed to stop?" she asked. "My son was on the ground screaming for the beating to stop. Was the beating supposed to continue until he was no longer breathing? No longer moving? My son was dead, and your police officer still was kicking him in the back of his head, and he was cuffed."
A recent Baltimore Sun investigation found that the city paid $5.7 million in judgments and settlements alleging police brutality and civil rights violations since 2011.
The two groups organizing Thursday night's protests-the Baltimore chapter of Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST) and the Baltimore People's Power Assembly-stressed repeatedly to the crowd that this was "a movement not a moment" and that police brutality will not be solved without fighting for a more equitable economic society. Earlier in the day, activists in more than 150 cities across the country engaged in one-day strikes and rallies as part of the Fight for 15 campaign.
Although Baltimore activists are still pushing for police to wear body cameras, a failure to indict despite the clear video evidence highlights the need to secure additional reforms.
The next Baltimore protest is scheduled for December 13th, followed by an organized "strike against racism" on January 15th-the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther, Jr.
