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Hundreds attend Black Lives Matter solidarity march in Manchester
Thousands attend Black Lives Matter solidarity march in Manchester
(about 2 hours later)
At least 1,500 people have gathered in Manchester as part of the Black Lives Matter protest movement spreading around the world.
Several thousand people have marched peacefully through Manchester as part of the rapidly spreading Black Lives Matter movement.
Young, old, black, white, some in wheelchairs, others in buggies, with afros, dreadlocks, baseball caps and hijabs, they turned out peacefully at Alexandra Park in Moss Side, which was at the centre of the city’s gun crime epidemic 10 years ago.
Though mostly young and black, the crowd encompassed all colours and ages. Some arrived in wheelchairs, others in buggies, with afros, dreadlocks, baseball caps and hijabs.
Prepared for the usual Manchester weather, one woman had decorated her yellow raincoat with a Martin Luther King quote. She didn’t need it in the end: the sun came out as the crowd gathered calmly at Alexandra Park in Moss Side, which was at the centre of the city’s gun crime epidemic 10 years ago.
Arm in arm they marched up through Hulme, stopping buses and attracting beeps of approval from passing motorists as they headed down Oxford Road and towards Albert Square. Some sang the Kendrick Lamar song Alright. Others opted for “Don’t worry, be happy”, between chants of “Hands up/Don’t shoot” and “No justice/No Peace”.
At its peak, as many as 3,000 people looked to have joined the lightly policed demonstration, which was followed by teenagers on skateboards and rollerskates and others on bikes.
Twenty-year-old Khaine, following the march by doing wheelies on his mountain bike, couldn’t believe the crowd. “I didn’t expect this kind of turn-out. People say that we don’t come together enough in this community. Obviously they were wrong,” he said. It wasn’t his first protest, he said: “The riots was my first one.”
Though designed primarily to show solidarity with the black victims of police violence in the US, for many attendees it was also about expressing frustration and pain felt much closer to home.
Keith Holland, a 51-year-old call centre worker, was holding a cardboard sign saying: “50 Years: He had a dream. My Nightmare continues.”
Pushing his bike, he could barely contain his anger. “Martin Luther King made his speech in 1963. Someone who was 20 then would now have had children and grandchildren and maybe even great grandchildren, all of whom could still ask now where that dream is people talk about. Is it some sort of fairyland?”
He went on: “For 41 years the police have been looking at me like I’m a criminal. When am I going to be decriminalised? Maybe this is the start of a new movement,” he mused.
Others insisted things were calming down. Prepared for the worst after a day of relentless rain, Sandra Forrester, 37, was wearing a floor-length sou’wester on which she had written the King quote: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter most.”
She insisted Manchester had improved a lot since she was a girl. “There’s a better sense of community now,” she said. “The children all get along.”
Related: It's time for white people to reckon with racism | Eve Ensler
Related: It's time for white people to reckon with racism | Eve Ensler
All were present to show solidarity with the victims of police violence against black people in the US and to reflect on race relations in the UK. Francesca Ricketts, a 20-year-old fashion student, said: “Although the police aren’t as brutal here as in America, there are still cases of police brutality.”
At Alexandra Park, Sheakha Omar was one of a number of speakers to talk about losing a family member to Manchester’s resurgent gang violence.
She was carrying a banner bearing the name of Sarah Reed, a young black woman who was found dead in her cell at Holloway prison this year. In 2012, Reed was at the centre of a police brutality case when a Metropolitan police constable, James Kiddie, was caught on CCTV yanking her by the hair, dragging her across the floor, pressing on her neck and punching her several times in the head.
Her nephew, 20-year-old Ahmed “Mudz” Mohammed, was stabbed to death in Moss side in March. She said black children still suffered racism in the city, particularly in recent weeks. “A few weeks ago, after the Brexit, my son had a friend who told him to ‘f-off nigger’,” she told the crowd. “I took this up with the school, I emailed my local councillor and they have not responded and the school did nothing,” she said.
Ricketts said black people in Manchester were discriminated against in subtle ways, citing the example of her own father. “I remember one day he had been doing the garden so needed to go to B&Q. He was wearing a tracksuit because he’d been gardening, and he was followed around the store the whole time by security. Then there’s if you’re driving home late at night and you notice the police are following you,” she said.
Kim Barnwell, 47, who lives in the diverse district of Gorton, where the Channel 4 TV show Shameless was set, said she could sense a shift in attitudes post-referendum: “We’ve seen more British flags go up, more dirty looks, even from people we’ve lived among for years.” But she took heart from the demo turn-out. “It feels amazing to be here, and quite emotional too, to know so many people feel the same.”
Though the skies had cleared by the time the rally began at 6.30pm, Theresa Douglas, better known as Miss Motivator, a presenter on the local Radio Diamond station, arrived with a box of umbrellas and ponchos donated by Manchester businesses. “Black businesses, Asian businesses, white businesses, they all wanted to help,” she said.
Douglas claimed her son had been a victim of police brutality in the UK after being mistaken for an armed robber. She said she was fearful for the future of her children. “I’ve got two black sons and four black daughters, plus eight black grandchildren. I’m marching for their peace of mind. They are not always safe on our streets.”
Douglas said she was particularly nervous about Moss Side’s annual carnival, which takes place each August.
Another protester in the crowd, Elizabeth Joy, a singer, carried a homemade banner saying “I’m white but even I know #BlackLivesMatter”.
The event followed similar demonstrations in London, Birmingham and Bristol over the weekend. The organisers of the Manchester event, PAC45Foundation Ltd, urged communities to join forces against police brutality, saying: “Justice will not be given, it must be fought for.”
There will be further demonstrations later in the week, in Leeds on Thursday and Liverpool on Saturday. More protests are expected in Birmingham.
The shootings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota triggered the latest wave of protests across the US and now the UK.
Sterling, 37, was shot dead on 5 July after two officers wrestled him to the ground and appeared to open fire shortly after one of them held a gun over his chest. The shooting in Baton Rouge will be investigated by the US Department of Justice’s civil rights division, after mobile phone video of the incident emerged.
Castile, 32, was shot the next day by officer Jeronimo Yanez after Castile was stopped for a broken rear light while he was driving with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her young daughter. Reynolds live-streamed the aftermath of the shooting online.
On Thursday five white police officers were killed after being targeted by a gunman at an anti-violence rally in Dallas, Texas. The gunman, Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old army veteran and member of the New Black Panther party, told police he was upset about the shootings of black men and wanted to target white officers. He was later killed by police using an explosive device carried by a bomb disposal robot.
On Friday and Saturday hundreds of people gathered in Windrush Square in Brixton, south London, bringing traffic to a standstill as they marched to the police station and through neighbouring streets chanting “black lives matter” and “hands up, don’t shoot”. There was also a mass protest in central London on Friday.
The founder of the Black Lives Matter movement in London, Marayam Ali, told the Voice newspaper that she hoped the marches would show that the UK was standing in solidarity with “our American brothers and sisters”.
