By Molly Hunter
Protesters in Charlotte, North Carolina called, and on Tuesday night, Iowa City residents responded.
On the heels of the death of Keith Lamont Scott, an African-American man who was fatally shot by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer on Sept. 20, a group of around 30 protesters gathered in front of the Iowa City City Hall Tuesday evening to show their support for Scott.
The protest is part of the Charlotte Uprising, a group that was formed in response to Scott’s death.The members had asked people around the country to protest in support of their movement. Nationwide protests took place on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CDT in a show of solidarity.
Protester Audrey Keith said the protest at City Hall was not organized to respond to any recent, specific incidents in Iowa City.
“As far as I know, there’s not any incident that’s happened very, very recently [in Iowa City] that this would be in response to … since we’re not actually there in Charlotte,” she said. “As far as what we can show to people here, it’s less specific.”
However, Keith said she felt the need to raise awareness to the issue locally.
“The community here, I feel, still needs to hear these messages,” she said.
Iowa City police Capt. Troy Kelsay said the department is always reassessing policy and making changes in training in order to account for diversity, cultural differences, and implicit bias.
“We need to continue to look in the mirror, we need to continue to listen to the community, and we need to continue to learn lessons from things that are happening across the country,” he said. “They aren’t happening here, that’s great, but we still need to be forward-looking.”
Keith said she organized the protest independently of any existing organizations.
“I was actually informed by someone else about the Charlotte Uprising call to action via Facebook,” she said. “We’re inspired to do this because of Charlotte Uprising. As much as you could say I organized this local event, it’s because they organized this call to action.”
Joel Gilbertson-White was another Iowa City community member and supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement who came out to show support for the Charlotte Uprising.
“I want this to be mainly about the voices from Charlotte, and I’m just echoing that … Quite simply, I’m outraged that this has been going on, obviously since Ferguson and since time immemorial,” Gilbertson-White said. “I’m outraged that it just keeps happening and that it’s become normal.”
Gilbertson-White has participated in similar protests in the past three years in Iowa City.
“There have been several [events] put on by Black Voices Project, Black Lives Matter Iowa City, by black students groups at UI,” Gilbertson-White said. “I’ve been with the coalition for racial justice, and I don’t know that they’ve led any, but they’ve participated.”
Iowa City locals Naomi Peterson and Emily Taylor also attended Tuesday’s protest at City Hall.
“I’ve been to some solidarity protests here,” Peterson said. “We were actually in Charlotte two weekends ago. … We were marching in the rally.”
Peterson said the Charlotte Uprising’s list of demands is long.
“The focus when we were there was the release of the video tapes — the dash-camera footage,” she said. “Also included on their demands was dismantling of the police system, although personally, I would support systematic reform.”
Tuesday’s protest at City Hall was less about those demands, however, and more about showing support for the Charlotte demonstrators as they continue to protest.
“The leadership of the protests are being specifically targeted by the police, taking them to prison,” Taylor said. “Their bails are being set really high — around $100,000 for the leadership — and they’re being held there and not released.”
Taylor said these “actions” of the police during the Charlotte Uprising protests, as well as the death of Scott, were her main concerns at Tuesday’s protest.
Peterson and Taylor said they had heard the police in Charlotte have also used rubber bullets and CS gas on the protesters.
“[CS gas] is banned under the Geneva Conventions for use in warfare … and rubber bullets can be lethal,” Taylor said.