HOLLAND (WHTC) — Thursday’s “Black Lives Matter” march in Holland, from Maple Avenue Ministries to the city’s police headquarters on Eighth Street, resulted in more than a show of solidarity against police brutality.
The marchers — black, white, Latino, Asian and bi- and multi-racial — lingered at the church after the march ended, many of them signing up to join a new task force.
None were aware of the shootings that disrupted the Dallas march: 11 police officers were hit and five died. One suspect was killed, according to the Dallas Morning News.
“If something happens like that in Holland, what would we do? Is there an action plan available? These are things we need to know,” said Theenda “Miss Cookie” Yarbrough, the mother of four and grandmother of one grandson. She’s been active for years in promoting Juneteenth activities and racial reconciliation. Yarbrough also earned an associates degree in criminal justice from Grand Rapids Community College; she said police prodcedures haven’t been followed in the fatal shootings of unarmed black men.
Black children shouldn’t have to follow an an extra set of safety instructions when they encounter police officers, she said, but black parents give them anyway.
“I feel that Holland is passionate about making changes and on some small levels I do see change and I see strides to make change,” she said. “But things that would make a significant impact? No, I haven’t seen it yet.”
Holland resident C.J. Kingdom-Grier, pastor of music at Maple Avenue and Western Theological Seminary’s associate director of admissions and assistant to the president for racial initiatives, said Thursday evening he has family members who are police officers in Michigan, Virginia and California.
His words were punctuated by the sound of car horns honked in support of the marchers and the unnerving popping of firecrackers. The fact that unarmed black Americans comprise 40 percent of those killed in police shootings — despite African Americans comprising only 13 percent of the total U.S. population — is a clear indication of bias, he said.
Holland’s police officers have been taking anti-bias training, but Kingdom-Grier said he’d also like to see “non-violent inervention — using that as a training mechanism, so you reach for a taser before you reach for a gun.”
Kingdom-Grier said he’d asked Holland Public Safety Chief Matt Messer “to talk to, not in City Hall, not at the police station, but come and talk to leaders of color on their own turf …” but no definite plans have been made. He believes police should build greater trust with the black community but, “I think one of the reasons that there’s so much tension is because there’s a fear. A fear that persists, right? Policemen are probably afraid for what could happen and people of color are afraid for what has happened, historically,” he said.
Two hours after the march, as news of the fatal shootings of Dallas police officers spread, Kingdom-Grier posted a prayer on his Facebook and Twitter pages, calling the shootings “a senseless tragedy” for police and civilians.
Lindsay Cherry, a mother of three young children and a seventh-grade English teacher at Harbor Lights Middle School, said she organized the march via Facebook, asking her friends to spread the word. She didn’t specifically invite police officers,she said, because organizing the march “happened so fast.”
Cherry plans to get in touch with police next, because “they’re not bad people. Just like black people are not bad people,” she said. Cherry is bi-racial: white and black. She encourages people to read the book, “All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, which offers a complicated tale that shows both police and the black community’s point of views after a violent incident.
She said she’ll know change is underway when violence against others based on race, religion or sexual orientation ends and when people stop labeling others before they get to know one another.
Among the public comments about the march on Facebook, Matthew Jamrock Rivera wrote “As I was leaving downtown Holland today after street performing I see protesters walking chanting ‘black lives matter’…that was awesome especially here in Holland.”
