Several hundred march through streets of Troy against police brutality

Several hundred people marched against police brutality and racial injustice on Monday evening through the streets of Troy, a wealthy suburb north of Detroit.

Police blocked off traffic as the crowd walked in the middle of Big Beaver Road, alongside the swankySomerset Collection mall, office buildings and chain restaurants like Ruth’s Chris Steak House and Bonefish Grill. They chanted throughout the march, yelling “Black Lives Matter” and the names of people recently killed by police.

Troy resident Laurielle Hemingway said the demonstration was heartwarming.

“Being black in a predominantly white area, it was nice to see some of my former classmates come out ... things don’t usually happen like this in my community,” Hemingway, 20, said.

The event was at least the second peaceful mass demonstration against racism and police brutality in Detroit’s suburbs in recent days. Evening protests in Detroit have also been peaceful, but later at night some protesters on Friday, Saturday and Sunday clashed with police. Monday's dispersed peacefully before 9 p.m. 

Troy was peaceful, but there were still calls for action.

The march reached its destination — Troy’s police station — shortly before 7 p.m. About five women who organized the event stood atop a storage container in the police station’s parking lot. Using a bullhorn, they urged the crowd to vote in November's presidential election and to maintain the movement’s momentum beyond Monday’s event.

“We need you to talk to your parents who do not accept us,” organizer Joy Mosley of West Bloomfield said to the crowd. “Take this and start your own moment.”

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Mosley said she and a handful of other female college students recently started a group called Black Activists Movement Network, which planned the event.

The crowd left the police station parking lot and walked back down Big Beaver. Some in the crowd raised a fist and yelled “no justice, no peace” as they walked in the street next to cars stuck in traffic. Some drivers raised a fist and honked their horn in approval.

C.J. Anderson, 27, of Southfield said the rally was a good first step to further action. He said he was surprised when he heard the event was in Troy.

“It’s the first one I’ve seen outside of a major city where it’s a lot of black people, minorities,” Anderson said. “It shows we can try to set up something that’s somewhere else.”

While those who marched remained peaceful, Troy police said via Twitter that a 68-year-old Troy man was arrested for felonious assault for intentionally striking a protester with his car at Big Beaver and Coolidge Highway. Police said the victim had no apparent injuries.

Joe Guillen, a member of the Free Press Investigations Team, has been covering city governance and development issues for the newspaper since 2013. He previously worked at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer covering county and state government. Contact him at 313-222-6678 or jguillen@freepress.com.