While thousands gathered Saturday at Ala Moana Regional Park to protest the death of George Floyd, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a virtual town hall to discuss what to do “after the march.”
About 100 people participated in the Zoom online discussion on creating change in response to African Americans who have died at the hands of police. Floyd died last month after a now ex-police officer placed his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes. A video of the incident sparked protests in all 50 states and around the world.
Co-host Kristen Brown, a youth member of the Honolulu Hawaii NAACP, said she wanted to uplift fellow youths to keep the movement going. She said she was infuriated to see acts of violence against African Americans as had been done in the past.
“The only difference between then and now is that we have phones with cameras on them. It is much harder for injustices to be hidden,” she said. “We need to use this momentum to lead people to vote and to fill out the Census.”
>> PHOTO GALLERY: Thousands march through Honolulu
Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald said Floyd’s death has created a time of reckoning for those who work in the justice system.
He said a study showed a person who is black in Hawaii is more than twice as likely as a white person to be imprisoned.
“We have a lot of work to do,” he said. “This is going to be a long and sometimes difficult conversation.”
Honolulu Police Deputy Chief John McCarthy spoke about efforts to prevent such incidents in Hawaii.
He said the department doesn’t teach knee restraints on the neck as was used on Floyd and has moved away from using chokeholds.
He mentioned news reports that one of the four ex-officers charged in Floyd’s death had 17 misconduct complaints and said a Honolulu Police Department officer could be fired for having three complaints within a year.
“We wouldn’t let any officer get into that kind of phase,” he said.
He said HPD’s challenge was more than 300 sworn officer openings and the department is taking on more work, including with addressing the homeless.
He said the chief is also trying to change the mindset of officers.
“It’s not us against them. It’s our show,” he said. “We have to move forward as a group.”
>> READ MORE: Thousands of Hawaii protesters rally for Black Lives Matter on Oahu, Hawaii island, Maui and Kauai
