Clergy Plans Protest March Against Police Actions, Deaths

Annapolis civil rights leaders say they plan to peacefully rally and pray Friday evening to protest police violence across the country, and local authorities caution that the march may tie up traffic downtown.

According to a news release from the Annapolis Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the protest will begin at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial at Annapolis’ City Dock. Participants will march up Main Street to Church Circle and head east to the Statehouse to end at Lawyers’ Mall.

The Rev. Stephen Tillett, president of the Annapolis Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, told Patch that the rally is not an anti-police protest, but rather an anti-police brutality protest.

“It is an anti-killing unarmed civilians protest,” Tillett said via email. “It is an anti-hyper-aggressive police presence and action in African-American communities when that same hyper-aggressiveness doesn’t happen anywhere else protest.”

Organizers have heard that some elected officials may attend, says Tillett, and Annapolis Police Chief Michael Pristoop has said he will be present. None of them have been invited to speak.

Street Closures, Traffic Snags

Annapolis Police say streets will be closed as the marchers move through the area.

Along with the march, police say there is a possibility of civil disobedience occurring after 2 p.m. at Rowe Boulevard near Taylor Avenue and Forest Drive near South Cherry Grove Avenue. There may be traffic delays and disruptions from the actions, which are reportedly being organized by different groups than the marchers.

The city says Annapolis Transit and the Circulator trolley will be affected by the rolling street closures. Buses may be running late. Also, after school programs at Pip Moyer Recreation Center have been cancelled.

Protest Message

The recent grand jury decision not to indict New York police officers who used a chokehold to subdue and kill Eric Garner should illicit a negative reaction from all people of good will, Tillett said. The unarmed husband and father of six was stopped by police for illegally selling untaxed cigarettes.

Among the points that protestors want to emphasize tonight, says Tillett, is that the plague of heroin and methamphetamine addiction growing across Anne Arundel County affects everyone. He argues that suburban and rural youths don’t face the same aggressive police tactics in their communities as authorities try to curb drug sales and use.

Tillett says that while drug use and drug selling happens in numbers proportional to the country’s population, African American residents, who make up 13 percent of the area’ population, face more than 50 of the criminal charges. “Those numbers reflect a system that has lost its moorings and that is operating in an unjust and immoral manner,” he said.

The rally will also urge that the judicial system, especially the grand jury system, undergo reform. Organizers propose civilian police review boards to act in any cases where excessive force is charged.

“We propose that an independent prosecutor be empowered to preside over all grand juries where a police shooting/killing is involved,” Tillett wrote to Patch. “To have prosecutors who work with the police on a daily basis to preside over a grand jury and provide instruction to that jury is a clear conflict of interest -- not just for African Americans, but for all people. Let the officer have his/her day in open court and let the chips fall where they may.”

Follow police on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/AnnapolisPolice or on Twitter at @AnnapolisPD for updates on both events.

Speakers at the rally include: Rev. Karen Johnson, Rev. Jerry Colbert, Rev. Bill Hathaway, Bishop Craig Coates, Rev. Mike Berry, Rev. Stephen Tillett, teen speaker Raegan Parker and Rev. Johnny Calhoun.

Protestors will board buses on Saturday, Dec. 13, to join a national protest gathering at 10:30 am at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C.