The Sunday vigil for Sandra Bland on the corner of Blackstone and Nees was a powerful and well organized demonstration.
Press release from organizers:
On July 10, 2015 Sandra Bland was arrested, accused of assaulting an officer after a routine traffic stop after a job interview in Texas, more than 1,000 miles from her home in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. Bland, 28, was found dead Monday in a Waller County jail cell in Hempstead, Texas, after authorities said she hanged herself with a plastic trash bag. Bland’s friends and family, as well as many in the general public are highly skeptical of the suspicious and tragic nature of her death and are demanding justice.
According to the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project statistics which started from 03/09-06/10 there has been 5,986 reports of police brutality that are reported resulting in 382 deaths, a great majority of these individuals have been black men and women.
Advocates respond by holding a protest and vigil in a predominantly white area as an effort to bring attention to over-policing, unwarranted searches and seizures, unnecessary detention, and most of all- the brutal murders of black men and women. We see these events as vicious and relentless attacks by those in power in an institutionally racist system that will stop at nothing to preserve and protect White Supremacy. Continued police brutality resulting in the deaths of black bodies by law enforcement must come to an end and law enforcement around the country must be held accountable.
After hearing from speakers, around 100 demonstrators marched through River Park Shopping Center towards Edwards 21 Cinema. The demonstrators marched through the movie theater briefly before captivating an audience of movie goers in front of the theater. After a moment of silence for Sandra Bland, the crowd marched back, chanting “Black Lives Matter” and singing:
“I can hear my neighbor crying / ‘I can’t breathe’ / Now I’m in the struggle, and I can’t leave / Calling out the violence of the racist police / We ain’t gonna stop till people are free / We ain’t gonna stop till people are free.”
Watch video and see pictures below:
