HARTFORD--After recent clashes between police and black citizens, a local group is taking a stand.
Moral Monday Connecticut held a rally Friday evening as a show of solidarity with cities impacted by police shootings. It was held in the North End, and started near the corner of Main Street and Albany Avenue.
During the rally, protesters marched to Hartford Police Headquarters, where several people lied down in the street with signs that read "White supremacy killed:" and each poster had the name of a black person who was shot and killed, as well as their ages.
“Here in Connecticut, we are not immune from the legacy of white supremacy —a direct descendant of slaveholding, lynching, and the Jim and Jane Crow system,” Bishop John Selders, founder of Moral Monday CT, said in a statement.
Similar protests were expected in Charlotte, Tulsa, Ferguson, Cleveland, Baltimore and other cities nationwide, where protesters held signs saying “We are Charlotte,” “Tulsa is everywhere” and “Stop killing us.”
The protests follow a contentious week, in which Keith Lamont Scott was shot and killed by a police officer in Charlotte, North Carolina and Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby was charged with manslaughter in the death of Terrance Crutcher. Violent protests broke out for two nights in Charlotte, and one protester was shot and killed by a fellow civilian.
According to Moral Monday CT, every 28 hours a black man is killed by a law enforcement official in the United States.
Selders said, "We’ve heard from hundreds of people who are committed to taking the streets in deep frustration and grief. We are moved to act now. We are called to witness and name injustice in the public square. The moment is now. The killings are now. The injustice is now. This must stop, NOW!"
