Thursday a gathering of public defenders rallied for the first time in California to demonstrate that “Black Lives Matter.”
Alameda County Public Defender Brendon D. Woods told NBC Bay Area, .”We’ve been considering this for a while, and struggling with what to do to show that black lives matter.” Public defender rallies are scheduled for Contra Costa, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties on Thursday as well.
The Oakland rally will include four-and-a-half minutes of silence, to honor Michael Brown, who was killed by a Ferguson police officer after committing a strong armed robbery and assaulting the officer. A Missouri grand jury determined that the officer killed Brown in self defense.
The four-and-a-half-minutes of silence symbolizes the four-and-a-half hours on Aug. 9 that Brown reportedly remained on the street after he was shot and killed. The protest will be held at the Rene C. Davidson main courthouse at 8 a.m.. Public defenders participating in the protest plan on wearing “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” T-shirts and black gloves.
Some of the rallies have added another 28 seconds to the moment of silence to point to the statistic that an African American is killed every 28 hours at the hands of the state. The statistic derives from a study that showed 313 African Americans were killed in 2012 by police, security guards or vigilantes.
NBC also reported that there have been others rallying nationwide in support of law enforcement officers who are saying that “Cops Lives Matter,” too.
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