Several leaders of the African-American community will be co-hosting a candlelight vigil to honor the memory of George Floyd from 6 to 7:45 p.m. tonight at The Dunbar Pavilion. Floyd was killed during an officer-involved interaction on Monday, May 25 in Minneapolis.
“This is a peaceful vigil. It’s about bringing peace and healing,” event organizer and co-sponsor Jahmar Anthony said. “It’s just our way of trying to bring peace to Tucson and bring some resolution.”
Vigil-goers are encouraged to wear COVID masks and bring candles to tonight’s event.
Anthony also said he wanted to address questions of why the City of Tucson and Tucson Police Department’s logos are on the vigil’s flyer. To Anthony, it’s very important that city leaders listen to the African-American community to express their anger over police brutality as well as hear the first-hand experience of that brutality inflicted on the community.
“There has been a lot of confusion based on the fact their logos are put on the flyer and they are invited guests. When I say invited guests, it’s mayor Romero and Chief Magnus,” Anthony said. “The reason why we feel their presence is important is that we want them to hear from the community. They are there to observe, not act. We expect them to listen to our voices and then we expect them to go back and try to make changes so we don’t have any more killings like George Floyd.”
The Dunbar Pavilion is located at 325 W. 2nd Street.
For more information, check out the Facebook event page here.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2020.
We can peacefully protest every night right up to the 8 pm curfew for the next months. Will the business community tolerate a curfew past this sunday?
I was at the peaceful vigil and was deeply moved by the feelings shared and the heartful connection between everyone there.
Why were things so calm and peaceful? Well a big reason is that there were no police in sight. They rightfully knew that encouraging peace meant staying away, and they wisely didn’t risk inflaming the atmosphere with their presence.
We need more smart decisions by Tucson Police to give space, back off, and stand down. We don’t need police acting like an occupying army. We don’t need war- style blanket statewide curfews and police blocking off downtown and showing force.
We need the leaders of our community at every level addressing the //why// of these protests.
You want the protests to stop? End systemic racism and put our capitalist economy on a new path of equality and caring for all.
Why hasn’t the police killing of Dion Johnson been properly investigated? Do the leaders of Tucson really think that there will be peace while Johnson and so many other Black men and men of all racess are being killed under suspicious circumstances?
George Floyd might have just been another Dion Johnson if Floyd didn’t have people filming him while he died. What would the video of Dion Johnson show? what would the videos show of so many others who have died at the hands of Tucson police and across the state?
Isn’t it clear that police – including Tucson police – have been hiding and getting away with cold blooded murder for decades? Isn’t that clear?
Do people even realize the implications of the George Floyd murder? Police feel they can totally get away with murder /even when it is being filmed/ – that’s how criminal our police are. They kept killing him even when they knew people were filming in broad daylight. Think about that.
And remember – it wasn’t the filming of police killing George Floyd that got police into trouble. Nothing happened when the video was released online. Nothing. Police had the video and did nothing. Prosecutors had the video and did nothing.
Police only started getting accountability when the protests started.
Think about that.
No, the police are /not/ going to be reforming themselves. It takes protests to force change. Our Tucson leaders should be supporting the protests.
You care about broken glass and looted stores and burnt buildings? Let’s fix the system that leads to civil unrest. Suppressing the protests by force is not going to work.
I have no doubt that if the police had showed up in force and thrown their weight around they could have provoked something. Now let’s make that the response to all the protests.