Chanting for 'Justice,' march goes to city hall

Brion Plummer had one simple message as he stood shoulder to shoulder with several other youth in the hot afternoon sun.

“I’m here because black lives do matter and I love my city,” the 16-year-old Palm Bay High student said as he and about 150 others braved the heat to march in a peace rally along U.S. 1, chanting “no justice, no peace” under the watchful eye of patrol officers from the Melbourne Police Department.

“This was pretty great. I like the feeling that people can come together. I don’t believe it’s good for anyone to die.”

The rally joined a national call for a re-evaluation of law enforcement tactics and a recent spate of officer-involved shootings across the nation — including the recent shooting death of 25-year-old Clarence Howard in Palm Bay. Organizers included a wide range of supporters from a local Black Lives Matters movement in south Brevard led by Barry Thompson, father’s rights activist David Henry and several churches.

The peaceful rally also came on a day when millions of Americans continued to struggle with the horrific images and raw emotions from deadly officer-related shootings in Baton Rouge, La., and Minnesota along with the ambush-style attack that left five police officers dead in Dallas. Many across the Space Coast also went to religious services to hear messages of prayer, forgiveness and racial reconciliation from pulpits.

Earlier Sunday at the 1,100-member First Baptist Church of Merritt Island, Pastor Titus Green called for prayer, togetherness and “peace in our speech” in wake of last week’s violence.

“My heart is broken,” Green said.

“The fact is, we haven’t done a better job with racial reconciliation. We’re not okay with that. It’s the calling of the people of God to lead. The cure for us is not to bury our head, the cure isn’t in Washington, D.C. The hope is the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” adding that members should work to hug a police officer and also make friends with those of different races and backgrounds.

Organizers at the rally also stressed the importance of non-violence and reconciliation.

“Stop the violence, that’s the main thing,” said Larry Carter, a retired Melbourne police officer and business consultant with the LCarter Group, on why the rally was put together. He said many in the community remain frustrated and angry over a spate of deadly encounters between unarmed black men and police but added that the Dallas attack shows there is much work to be done on all sides. “You can’t do evil for evil. We all have a part in this and we all have to work together on this.”

Similar Black Lives Matter rallies have drawn thousands of protesters across the nation. The movement has its origins in the protests that followed the 2012 slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford. Sunday, rally-goers stood in the shade of city hall near a parked patrol car and offered prayers for the black men killed in encounters with police officers and for the police killed in Dallas.

No incidents were reported, although one person driving by the crowd at city hall shouted the N-word moments before Howard’s mother stepped up to speak. “Peace, Peace,” someone said in the crowd. “We rebuke that,” someone else shouted before the rally continued.

Deputy Chief Vincent Pryce of the Melbourne Police Department watched from the sidelines as the peaceful rally continued. “You have (concerns) on both sides. There’s no place for violence. We want peace and justice and we want the system to do its job,” Pryce said. “We also have a responsibility to help maintain that trust.”

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Organizers rallied around Howard’s case. State investigators said he was shot to death in what was described in a road-rage incident on Father’s Day by an off-duty Brevard County sheriff’s deputy.

“I can tell you that prayer changes things,” said Sarah King, Howard’s aunt, to the crowd that gathered shortly before the rally at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in south Melbourne. “I stand before you today with everything going on in our country ... hold on. In order for us to see the glory of God, we have to have forgiveness. This day is just the beginning,” she said.

Deputy Yousef Hafza, 32, was charged 10 days later with second-degree murder in connection with Howard’s June 19 death. Hafza was arrested and remains jailed. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has motioned for a bond hearing at the Moore Justice Center later this month.

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He remains on administrative leave without pay pending an administrative review of the incident by sheriff’s investigators. The state attorney’s office is set to decide whether to file formal charges in the case by the end of the month. Rally goers offered prayer for Hafza and his family but also asked that justice be done.

The crowd, which held signs that read, “Enough is Enough. We’re all fed up, no matter what your skin, we’re next of kin,” and “Don’t forget my son Mahogany Howard,” left Macedonia and wound their way onto U.S. 1 before turning onto Strawbridge Avenue to get to City Hall. Several speakers said the rallies for justice would continue.

“(Mahogany) was also my classmate. He was always smiling and he was a great father to his children,” said Thompson, a Black Lives Matters grass roots organizer. “You have to keep the faith. But this is definitely the first of many marches. We have to keep rallying.”

Contact Gallop at 321-242-3642, jdgallop@floridatoday.com and Twitter@JDGallop