HARTWELL, Ga.
Hundreds of people hit the streets in Hartwell, Ga., on Saturday calling for justice.
The crowd marched Saturday morning in support of Jimmy Lee Blackwell. Blackwell lost his eye in a fight with a police officer Feb. 16.
About 200 people attended the march, and some came from as far away as New York.
"He went in with two eyes and came out with one eye," a protester said. "That's bad."
Blackwell was walking and had been stopped by a police officer.
"We need the police to be on our side, not against us," another protester said.
He wound up in a hospital after a run-in with the officer.
"If someone's 51 years old and intoxicated, there's no reason you should beat him beyond recognition, first of all," said Tariq Alexander, president of Ruff Riders Films.
It's not exactly clear what happened between the time Blackwell met up with the officer and when he ended up in the hospital.
"It's just a shame the way that man was beat," Alexander said. "There's no justification for that."
The protesters said they're determined to keep it from happening again.
"We must stand up and say enough is enough," they said.
The Jimmy Lee Blackwell Support Group is named for one man, but the organizers said it's about the problems of many people. They said that what happened to Blackwell was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
"I think it's one of those things that's been swept under the rug so long that people thought, 'Hey, we can continue to sweep it under the rug,'" said Apostle Roderick Hughey, of the Jimmy Lee Blackwell Support Group. "But the rug has gotten so high off of the ground by the pile of the things that's been swept up under it that you can't hide it anymore."
The protesters walked a two-mile silent march. They said the idea is to let the talking do the walking, but everyone had so much to say.
"Everybody feels like it's wrong, regardless of what color you are," one person said.
"Stop giving thugs a badge," another person said.
The walk ended on the spot where Blackwell was injured. He was there with his family, who shielded him from questions about his legal record. But his friends said that the past is the past and they're ready to move forward.
The incident between Blackwell and the police officer is being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. That officer was also injured in the altercation. He is on paid administrative leave.
No comments:
Post a Comment