Arlington Residents March For Racial Justice, Police Reform

ARLINGTON COUNTY, VA — A group of about 100 people marched more than three miles on a hot August afternoon through Arlington demanding justice for victims of police brutality and calling on the county's elected officials to bring police reform to the county.

The march, organized by Arlington for Justice, a group founded in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis with a mission to transform how Arlington County handles public safety, included residents from across the county as well as a family from Los Angeles visiting friends in the area.

Several marchers, including co-founders of Arlington for Justice, spoke Saturday about how some of their neighbors believe Arlington is a place that already does things right and does not need to make any changes to its policing and justice system.

"A lot of people are very thankful for the community we live in and think it's perfect and nothing needs to be changed. Nothing can be further from the truth," Atima Omara, one of the co-founders of the group, said at a rally in front of the Ellen M. Bozman Government Center at the conclusion of the march.

"This is a great county. We need to make it greater by fighting for criminal justice reform and reforming public safety in our backyard," Omara said.

After the death of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in May, the Arlington NAACP and new groups like Arlington for Justice stepped up to push for criminal justice and police reform in Arlington.

Arlington for Justice became even more engaged for change when they saw that Arlington County police officers were involved in removing peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. on June 1 as part of a mutual aid agreement with police agencies in D.C.

In July, following the incident in Lafayette Square, the Arlington County Board asked the county manager to lead a review of police policies and practices in the county. The first step will be an external review and assessment of current policies and practices. The themes of this assessment will be shared with a 15-member Police Practices Group early in the fall.

The Police Practices Group, which is holding its first meeting on Monday, is where groups like Arlington for Justice can make headway on their calls for reform, Michelle Woolley, another co-founder of the group, said at the rally.

"We need a civilian oversight review board with teeth, that has subpoena power, that really can hold our police accountable," Woolley said.

A resident recently contacted Arlington for Justice about a "disturbing" encounter they had with the Arlington County Police Department, said Woolley, who told the crowd that she then went on the police department's website to find out where to report police misconduct.

"Guess what? You can't find an avenue to even report misconduct," she said. "The Arlington County police say they don't have issues. Well, if you can't report, how the hell are you going to know if you have issues."

A long-time Arlington resident, who participated in the march, told Patch that he has been "harassed unduly" by Arlington County police.

The marcher, a Black man who provided only his first name of Allen, recalled how Arlington police have pointed a flashlight directly in his face after stopping him "unnecessarily" multiple times. Police are supposed to be trained in deescalation tactics, but the shining of a flashlight directly in a person's face "seems like a method to escalate things," Allen said.

"I'm a pretty mellow guy. It takes a lot to get me going. If my temper were a little less checked, I can see bad things happening," he said. "No one who I've talked to in Arlington who is not of African descent has been treated like that."

Nonetheless, Allen said he has been inspired by the current movement, especially the younger people who are leading many of the marches and efforts for change. "As much trash as I've talked about Millennials as a Gen Xer, they get nothing but respect from me now," he said.

"I was electrified when I started seeing the Confederate statues coming down," he said.

During his time at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond 30 years ago, he wondered why the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee was on Monument Avenue. "It seems indicative of the lack of respect and the lack of regard that a lot of institutions have for Black lives," he said.

Joining the marchers was Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, the commonwealth’s attorney for Arlington and the city of Falls Church. Dehghani-Tafti, who won her first term last November running as a reform candidate, told Patch she was participating in the march because "it's time for transformative change of our criminal legal system."

The racially diverse group of people of all ages started their march at the Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary School in the Green Valley neighborhood. Escorted by Arlington County police officers on motorcycles, the march continued north on Glebe Road and then followed Walter Reed Drive and Fillmore Street across Columbia Pike and Route 50 into the Lyon Park neighborhood.

About a mile from the end of the march, between Lyon Park and the Courthouse area, Arlington police officers provided marchers with bottles of cold water.

Kimberly Roberts, a resident of the Green Valley community (formerly known as Nauck), described how her neighborhood, through gentrification, has changed from more than 99 percent African American to less than 30 percent today.

Roberts, representing the Green Valley Civic Association at the march, said Arlington is a liberal county on the surface. "When you start digging down, you see that the 'Arlington Way' needs some work," she said.

However, Roberts, who went to Washington-Lee High School, expressed optimism that changes will come as a result of the current movement for racial justice. "This is amazing to see this many white people and other races out supporting us," she said. "I've never seen anything like this."

Roberts also said she was "ecstatic" when the Arlington County School Board in 2019 voted to rename her alma mater Washington-Lee as Washington-Liberty High School.

Los Angeles resident Essie Blankson-Turner, who was visiting friends in Arlington with her children, said she felt an obligation to attend the march. "To see this multicultural group of people is really inspiring," she told Patch.

Blankson-Turner attributed the movement for racial justice that has spread coast to coast in the wake of the death of George Floyd to the "visceral reaction to seeing a person murdered."

"If you have any compassion and love in your heart, you have to react and this is the time," she said.