During a candlelight vigil and peaceful protest at Long Beach City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 9, demonstrators hold up signs that read, “I can’t breathe,” the words of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who was choked to death by police in Staten Island, New York for resisting arrest.
-Staff Writer-
A diverse crowd of nearly 100 people congregated outside of Long Beach City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 9, holding handwritten signs and lit candles during a peaceful protest in response to two separate incidents involving the deaths of unarmed black men that have sparked worldwide discourse about race and use of excessive force by police.
Last week, grand juries decided not to indict white police officers responsible for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, involving two separate cases that have sparked civil unrest in America and abroad.
Garner was choked to death by police in Staten Island, New York on July 17 after resisting arrest, and Brown was killed on Aug. 9 by several gunshots from a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri after an altercation.
Organizers of the “Interfaith Justice Candlelight Vigil” in Long Beach made three requests: an “honest and open dialogue” between communities, the police and elected officials on how to “more effectively police Long Beach;” more training for police officers on how to de-escalate confrontations and access community mentors; and a “re-examination” of policing and prosecuting procedures.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach Rev. Mitra Rahnema, who led the demonstration, asked the crowd, “When police conduct is in question, who has the oversight on that, and what is that process?” She added, “We’re here to make Long Beach a united city.”
The vigil, which traveled from City Hall to Long Beach police headquarters and ended at the steps of the George Deukmejian Courthouse, included moments of prayer and song as religious leaders spoke out against what they called “structural, systemic and institutional racism” in society and denounced excessive police force.
Three organizations, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE-LA), Greater Long Beach Interfaith Community Organization (ICO) and South Coast Interfaith Council (SCIC), organized the vigil for people to “stand together in solidarity,” according to a statement about the event.
Some of the demonstrators held up signs that read, “I can’t breathe,” the words of Garner before he died, while others wore shirts that read, “Black Lives Matter.”
Rev. Leon Wood, executive pastor at Church One Ministries and founder of the North Long Beach Community Prayer Center, spoke about an online video that recorded police choking Garner to death and demanded policing reforms based on community input.
“I got to see that man on television being choked to death, and he said ‘I can’t breathe,'” Wood said. “I want us all to breathe together, to breathe the air of freedom, to breathe the air of justice, to begin to breathe the air that says ‘we want you, who work for us, to obey our rules and regulations, to begin to let us determine how you enact the law, because we make the law.’ Right now, we’re beginning to let people socially control us who work for us. We have to turn it around.”
Wood also spoke of a need to understand today’s youth left in what he described as a failed societal system of high unemployment and rising tuition costs for higher education.
“Our young people are just trying to live in a society that’s often been confusing,” he said. “They tell you to work hard, but there’s no work for you. They tell you to educate yourself, but they raise the price of education. And then when our young people begin to try to do something for themselves and try to find some recreational stimulus or something that gives them some release, we arrest them. And if they balk at being arrested, we shoot them. Then we ask the public to understand.”
During the demonstration outside of City Hall, 8th District Long Beach Councilmember Al Austin and 7th District Councilmember Roberto Uranga both gave words of encouragement to the crowd in front of City Hall.
Both councilmembers stated that the City of Long Beach has put in place checks and balances through the City’s citizen complaint commission to help ensure that the community keeps police officers accountable.
“I think we are far more advanced than Ferguson and other areas that are experiencing very unfortunate calamities, and it’s unfortunate when anybody loses their life in any situation, particularly in the hands of law enforcement,” Austin said. “We have processes here in place for the City of Long Beach that give our city a voice ! I’m a father of two young African American boys. I want to make sure my kids have every opportunity to be educated, every opportunity to experience life like I have experienced life, and I want every other kid in the city to have that opportunity as well.”
