Hundreds stop traffic marching to BPD Headquarters

BOSTON — Hundreds met at Nubian Square Wednesday for a rally that lasted a couple of hours in the rain.

“They kill us in the rain, so we’re going to be out here regardless,” said Violence in Boston Inc. CEO Monica Cannon-Grant.

Protesters marched from the B-2 police station to the BPD headquarters to meet them head-on before coming back to Nubian Square to end the night. Some even protested in their cars as traffic stood at a standstill on Tremont Street waiting for the protesters to finish addressing police.

“I sign petitions and I donate, but coming to protest feels like I’m actively doing something,” said 14-year-old Carlie Gordon. “I love the feeling I get here. My mom helps me find the protests.”

“We want to be on the right side of history,” said her mom, Katie Janeway.

“I think it’s important for us as a family to come if we can have four of us, instead of just one, and if we can multiply that with other families that would be great,” said her dad, David Gordon. “Right after George Floyd was killed, that really got us motivated as a family.”

The rally and march not just for George Floyd but for every other life taken by police before and after the verdict.

“You celebrate for five minutes and you get hit,” said Cannon-Grant about the shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant. “It wasn’t even an hour and we’re like, ‘Got to be kidding me’ but I will be honest, I believe it was purposefully done to send a message. Police are so used to not being accountable for their actions because they’re not. It’s literally like we are saying, ‘Stop killing us’ and somebody is saying but...”

“Justice was not truly served for George Floyd, justice would be if he was still alive today, accountability was served and that’s not good enough,” said Carlie. “There are so many victims of police shooting people of color and they don’t get any accountability at all. We are here to use our privilege to amplify people of color’s voices so we can tear the system down and build it up from the bottom so it doesn’t have all of these racist policies.”

The crowds marching in step with those in Minneapolis and cities around the world, saying Boston may not have the same high profile cases, but there is still work to be done.

“Boston is one incident away from being a Ferguson,” said Cannon-Grant.

Other than some profanities shouted toward the officers, the night remained completely peaceful.

The crowd never grew more than a couple hundred, but the rain was a big part of that. If there were clear skies, protesters say there would likely have been more people.

Follow Wale on Facebook: WaleAliyuTV Twitter: @WaleAliyu or Instagram: WaleAliyuTV 

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW