George McNeill, right, and other protesters called for an end to racial profiling and for more police accountability on Sunday.
ROCKINGHAM — A group of about two dozen protesters took to the streets Sunday to protest police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd while in police custody on May 25.
They gathered in the Walmart parking lot around 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon and later in the JCPenny parking lot in Richmond Plaza following a Facebook post by George McNeill of Rockingham. Several grocery stores closed early in anticipation for the protest.
As the protesters began marching from the parking lot to East Broad Avenue, Rockingham Police Chief Billy Kelly and Major E.W. Grant approached them to let them know that officers would block traffic for them up to Burger King. Grant could be heard telling the protesters that “we feel the same way you do.”
They chanted “no justice no peace, no racist police,” “black lives matter,” and “can I breathe?” — the latter a reference to Floyd’s words to the officer that was kneeling on his neck.
The video of Floyd’s death has sparked protests and riots across the county and in cities throughout North Carolina over the last week. The protesters have sought criminal charges for the officers involved in Floyd’s death, accountability for all police officers who commit undue violence against the public and for institutional changes in law enforcement across the board.
The Richmond County protesters came out in solidarity with this national movement.
“I wanted to show everybody across the country that we stood with them,” said Abril Stroman of Marston, who was one of the strongest voices in the march. “We understand everything that they’re going through, we understand everything that’s going on and at the end of the day we empathize with them.”
Stroman said the video of Floyd’s death made her feel “hopeless.” She added that she was glad to see the diverse support they received. Some of the people who joined the march were just people who were out shopping in Richmond Plaza, according to Stroman.
“At this point I just want every citizen to stick together — black, white it doesn’t matter what color because right now our black community is under attack,” said Stroman. “I appreciate our brothers and sisters from other cultures coming out and supporting and I want to especially thank the police officers … for stopping us and asking what we needed.
“We’re not trying to bother anybody, we’re not out here trying to break anything,” she continued. “We’re just out here trying to have a voice and I feel like our voices are very important in this moment in time.”
McNeill said he called for this protest because “it needed to be done.”
“We needed our community to pull together. An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere,” he said. “We wanted to be proactive and stop it from getting to our door.”
McNeill, 33, said that he had spoken to Sheriff James Clemmons who offered him a chance to sit down with local law enforcement leaders to improve relations with the community. He wants to see an end to racial profiling and expressed frustration with the recurrence of problems like what was demonstrated in the handling of Floyd’s arrest, as well as the Ahmaud Arbery case and others, that persist despite the movements of the past.
“The same stuff we’re marching for today they marched for before I was born,” he said. “Stuff never gets worked out, it gets started but nobody ever sees it through to the end.”
Another protester, who goes by the alias “Ya’meni,” the turnout for the protest Sunday showed the value of perseverance for local activists who have organized marches in the past but have seen little support. By the time the protesters got back to the JCPenny parking lot, the crowd of supporters had grown significantly.
“Finally now we’ve got the numbers and we’ve got to do something with it and we’re not going to stop,” she said.
Ya’meni said they made progress in relations with police thanks to their offer to help with managing traffic, but things still are “not where we want to be.” Asked about the possibility of McNeill sitting down with law enforcement, she said, “George ain’t ‘us’ … we all need to be heard.”
‘Outliers’ damage business
Kelly said the protest was peaceful “for the most part,” with positive interactions between the law enforcement and the protesters. His qualification on that point was due to a brick being thrown through the front door of CVS at some point after the march Sunday evening. This is still under investigation.
“There were a few outliers with acts of aggression that resulted in minimal damage to a local business but with no arrests at this time,” Kelly said.
Law enforcement vehicles were seen blocking the entrances to several shopping centers later Sunday evening.
Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2673 or [email protected].