Activists Rally Downtown For More Protection For Black Community
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Local activists rallied in the rain in downtown Pittsburgh Tuesday, calling for protections for members of the Black community and those who identify as trans.
Those who showed up for this rally called for better investments in Black neighborhoods, organizations and schools. But they also demanded more movement on behalf of politicians and police to solve and bring justice in homicide cases involving members of the Black and trans communities.
Dozens of people stood through the rain, lining Grant Street outside the City-County Building, demanding justice and defense of the members of the Black community who have lost their lives to gun violence and Black trans people who have also been victims of violence in the region.
"If we do not come together, we are going to continue to be in the same space with our loved ones dying from the community, from police, because of the systems. The systems that are put in place to keep us oppressed as Black people," said Trans YOUniting founder Dena Stanley.
She means people like 19-year-old Amari Lei, a trans woman who was found gunned down in the streets of Wilkinsburg on New Year's. Members of her family were at the rally and said the investigation into her death has shown no progress.
"I pray blessings on Amari's mother, who has not had a resting moment since Amari has been taken from our lives and from her life, and from her grandmother's life and all of us who are here," said her cousin Erin Perry.
Many of the speakers expressed feeling failed by politicians and demanded their voices be heard and families who have had their loved ones taken for them get justice.
"How can you get murdered by the police and it called an accident? Jim Rodgers wouldn't be dead if he was not tased. That's not an accident"," said Brandi Fisher, the president of Alliance for Police Accountability.
Trans YOUniting, the Alliance for Police Accountability, Black Lives Matter Pittsburgh and 1Hood helped organize this rally.
Organizers stated there will be future actions like this in the future and encouraged more people to get involved.
