CINCINNATI, Ohio—While there has been division between the black community and law enforcement, black police officers have been caught in the middle. In Cincinnati, one black officer decided to break down that barrier and plan a march that includes both sides.
A peaceful march from the Avondale Towne Center all the way to Police District 4 organized by black police officers to try to get their community together.
What You Need To Know
- Black police officers organized a peaceful march in the community
- Black officers say they know how their community feels and wants to work together
- The march also gave kids an opportunity to speak their minds
“Black lives matter!”
It’s a chant that’s been heard around the world. But on Sunday in Cincinnati, It was chanted alongside police.
“It’s not use versus them,” Eddie Hawkins a Cincinnati Police Officer and youth program coordinator said. “We’re together. And I think what has happened is someone has thought that it was police against the community and now we got to break that wall down.”
The one and a half mile march was Hawkins idea. As a police officer with the Cincinnati Police Department for 21 years and the youth program coordinator, he wanted to make sure his community members knew that he stood with them.
“Being a black man, I see myself in a lot of those situations,” Hawkins said. “When I drive a vehicle sometimes when police get behind me, do I feel a little apprehensive? I do. Which is surprising because I’m a law enforcement officer and I shouldn’t, but I do.”
The march also allowed for kids to share their voices. Sakina Devereaux brought her kids to the protest just for that reason.
“They have a voice,” Devereaux said. “And it’s important for us as adults to listen to them. They’re crying out. This is not the 80s or the 90s. They have something to say, they are well informed, they can research and we need to support them and giving them the voice that they need to say I don’t like this, I don’t like what’s going on and I want to change it.”
While organizers and protesters alike agree change needs to be made, many of them believe it can’t be done without working together with the police.
“We have to work together,” Devereaux said. “It’s a solution that we have to come together. We need to feel that they have our back and we have theirs at the same time.”
“Moving forward that the accountability is there, the transparency stays there and they should be able to look to a police officer and feel as though, hey that person’s got my back and I should feel safe,” Hawkins said.
And they know now is the time to make sure that change happens.
“This is historic,” Devereaux said. “This has never happened before across the world so we need to be apart of something like this.”
