'I can't breathe': Montgomery protesters decry George Floyd's murder
Melissa BrownThey chalked the names up on the pavement, one after the other leading up Dexter Avenue toward Alabama's gleaming Capitol building.
And last, yards away from the Capitol steps, was George.
Hundreds gathered on the sprawling marble steps Saturday evening to honor George Floyd and protest his death after the 46-year-old man died in police custody on May 25. A white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, even after he became unresponsive and had no pulse.
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Protesters say Floyd, who was black, is the latest fatality in a systemic pattern of police brutality that disproportionately affects black people and other communities of color. Floyd's death has sparked protests across the country decrying his treatment, including several in Montgomery on Saturday.
"I think a part of me died looking at that video of George Floyd," said Phyllis Harvey-Hall to the Montgomery crowd. "It's time for a change."
Dozens gathered Saturday afternoon in front of a Montgomery police precinct before the Capitol gathering, where law enforcement blocked off traffic for the rally that lasted more than two hours.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed on Friday called Floyd's death a "lynching" in a virtual town hall before asking for a moment of silence for him at an afternoon press conference.
"It was something that did not and should not have happened. We must think about how we reduce and eliminate the minds and the actions that lead to those outcomes. There's no bringing George Floyd back. There's no chance to hit rewind or reset," Reed said.
Police Chief Ernest Finley also spoke, calling Floyd's death "very disturbing."
"We have to get out in front of it and really let the community know where we stand when we have injustices like that, and again we’re gonna let the courts make that determination, but when we have a tragic situation like that the police department and myself do not condone that type of action," Finley said.
Finley was on hand at two rallies and protests in Montgomery on Saturday. At the Capitol, he stood to the back of the crowd, occasionally addressing and directing police officers to speak to disruptive crowd members. Though largely peaceful, one man and woman continually attempted to disrupt the speakers from the audience.
One woman, who was white, pushed forward through the crowd while attempting to shout over a young black speaker. A handful of people surrounding her used cardboard signs to block her voice and slowly walk her back out of the crowd.
"We are not here to hear your opinion," said the speaker. "You're here to hear us."
Another young man told the crowd that by talking about race, he wasn't automatically calling others racist.
"I'm trying to educate you about my experience," he said. "You're trying to overshadow my voice.
JJay Davis, a 25-year-old Prattville resident, had less than an hour to spend at the protest before her 5 p.m. work shift began. She found herself with a megaphone in her hand after attempting to engage David Day, a regular anti-abortion protester out of Montgomery's Reproductive Health Services. Day began shouting over protesters at about 4 p.m. before Davis walked up to him.
"They're out here trying to find justice," Davis told Day. "You're not helping."
Later, Davis said she wanted to attend the protest not just to decry Floyd's death but to address the system at large and push for greater accountability for police.
"I'm protesting the reaction of the justice system," Davis said. "What are we doing about this to keep it from happening again?"
Davis said accountability would mean police officers see repercussions for their actions without receiving special treatment. After widespread outcry, the police officer who knelt on Floyd's neck has been arrested and charged with third degree murder, according to the Star Tribune, but the three other officers involved have not been charged.
"I'm protesting because I want the other three arrested," said one woman, who identified herself as a local history teacher. She pointed to the case of Nate Woods, the Alabama man executed in March for his role as an accomplice to the murder of three Birmingham police officers.
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"If Nate Woods was executed for that, why can't those 3 be charged?" she asked.
Another speaker decried the treatment of former police officer A.C. Smith, who was found guilty last year of manslaughter in the shooting death of Greg Gunn but has been granted an appeals bond, allowing him to walk free as his appeal makes its way through the court.
Reed on Friday said he and local law enforcement are "constantly trying" to do better in Montgomery to avoid "some of the mistakes of the past."
"Those mistakes have happened not only here in Montgomery but in this country, far too often, in particular when it comes to black men," Reed said. "That's an issue we all have to face, an issue we all have to work to try to solve. It's an issue we have to acknowledge, even if it means having uncomfortable conversations, even if we have some disagreements on how we achieve progress in that space."
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Melissa Brown at 334-240-0132 or mabrown@gannett.com.