NEWS

’We are the majority’: Black Lives Matter protest in Portsmouth

Hadley Barndollar
hbarndollar@seacoastonline.com
A large crowd gathered in Market Square for a Black Lives Matter protest as they all take a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds which is  how long the police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck in Minneapolis.

PORTSMOUTH – As dusk blanketed the city Thursday, nearly 1,200 protesters knelt across downtown for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

That is the length of time Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck as his face was pressed to the pavement.

The collective kneeling in Portsmouth began in silence, with only nearby spring peepers to be heard. Intermittently, protesters began to yell “I can’t breathe” and “Mama!” – the words Floyd gasped as he lay suffocating on May 25, documented by bystander video.

A black man in the masses sobbed through his face mask at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking, “I was almost beaten to death 25 years ago by police.” His calls reverberated through the meditative crowd.

Thursday’s Black Lives Matter protest in Portsmouth was a peaceful yet uproarious display of a community fed up, bringing in people from across New Hampshire and out-of-state.

The city’s streets were enveloped in signs denouncing racism, police brutality and white supremacy. Chants of “hands up, don’t shoot” and “no justice, no peace” echoed out across the Piscataqua River.

Portsmouth Police Chief Robert Merner marched alongside protesters.

Following Floyd’s death, Chauvin is now charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, while the three officers who stood by and did not intervene are facing charges of aiding and abetting a murder. The country has since erupted in protests and civil unrest, and a civil rights investigation has been launched into the Minneapolis Police Department.

A speaker on Thursday, Keondray Lucas, a Portsmouth resident whose grandfather Nathaniel Holloway was instrumental in getting Martin Luther King Day formally recognized in New Hampshire, clenched his eyes as he stepped toward the microphone, and he began to cry.

“Growing up, my mother taught me some very important things,” he said. “Be careful about walking with your hoodie on. Don’t walk down the street with your hands in your pockets. Don’t wear a wife-beater, and don’t play with guns even if it is a Nerf gun.”

He continued, “And if a cop pulls you over, keep your hands on the wheel, ask that officer if you can reach for your wallet, and whatever he tells you to do, you do it. Don’t talk back, don’t argue.”

Lucas said the system is not broken, rather “this is exactly the way they want the system to work. Putting black people and other minorities in an early grave.”

The organizer of Thursday’s event was Ramsay Dean, a Portsmouth resident. “Looking out at all of you, I feel so emotional,” he said. “The size of the crowd speaks volumes. We are the majority.”

Dean said his purpose was to blow the whistle on “violence and murder inflicted on black communities by the very people supposed to protect and serve us.”

Racism, he said, is woven into the fabric that is America, “and that includes right here in New Hampshire.”

“If you don’t think racism is alive and well in New Hampshire, take a look at your social media feeds,” Dean said, citing negative and threatening comments he’d received over the prior four days since making a Facebook page for his event.

“Black people everywhere are in pain and under duress,” he said. “(And these things) are happening every single day. George Floyd’s murder just happened to play out for a national audience.”

Dean said the U.S. needs to “stop allowing the police to police themselves.”

“What ends police violence is accountability for their actions.”

Dean introduced to the crowd Portsmouth resident Daniel May, who addressed his time in the state prison system and perhaps a different outcome if the police officers in his one of his own cases were equipped with body cameras.

Last September, the Portsmouth Police Commission unanimously decided against body cameras for the city’s police officers.

Two Dover High School students representing Project DREAM, which held a peaceful vigil in Dover on Monday, spoke to the crowd about being black youth in New Hampshire.

Miraqle LaPierre said at 16 years old, she was put into handcuffs “for no reason.”

“You’re scared, your heart’s beating fast, you’re sweaty,” she said. “I thought I was going to lose my life.”

LaPierre asked white protesters to use their privilege to “protect us, stand with us.”

“We will not be silent, we will not sit down, we want justice and we want it now,” added speaker Latoya Fletcher.

Following the speaking program, protesters proceeded to march down Congress, Fleet and State streets several times.

Portsmouth business owner Joanna Kelley, who is one of the organizers of another protest scheduled for Sunday, encouraged people of color to run for office – as she did last year when she competed for a seat on the City Council; to “get our voices on the front lines.”

“I have one simple question to every person here,” Kelley asked. “Do I matter?”

As the protest began to disperse peacefully just before 9 p.m., Merner said he thought it went “fantastic.” Some small groups remained downtown for dialogue with each other and police officers on scene.

“We’re very pleased,” Merner said. “Everyone got to exercise all of their constitutional rights. There were no disruptions.”

Last weekend, Merner issued a public statement on behalf of members of the Portsmouth Police Department calling Floyd’s death “deeply disturbing” and the manner in which his ultimately fatal arrest was carried out “reprehensible.” In the statement, Merner said Chauvin’s actions were “totally inconsistent with the training and protocols of our profession.”

Asked Thursday how the Portsmouth Police Department will take the conversation forward, Merner said he believes the city has a style of policing where “the police are the community and the community is the police.”

His staff worked closely with the organizers of Thursday’s event, he said, and also those of the events scheduled for Market Square on Saturday and Sunday.

“The conversation just has to continue,” Merner said. “And we will continue to build relationships.”

Keondray Lucas is overcome by emotion before he can speak to a huge crowd at a Black Lives Matter event held in Portsmouth Thursday. Lucas is of New Hope Baptist Church and grandson of Nathaniel Holloway, a former New Hope deacon and civil rights leader who was instrumental in getting MLK Day formally recognized in NH.