DETROIT - Stefan Perez, a 16-year-old Detroit native, knelt down at the intersection of Third Street and Michigan Avenue in downtown Detroit and wept.
The teenager with wild, frizzy, brown hair had led more than 500 protesters in a march that covered at least eight miles, belting chants such as “Say their name," to which the crowd replied “Which one?” a reference to the many people of color who have been killed by police.
Perez and the crowd, peacefully protesting under the banner of the anti-racism coalition By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, crossed an I-75 bridge into downtown to finish the march and ran into a wall of police in riot gear. As Perez fell to his knees, fearing the same tear gas and rubber bullets Detroit police used to beat back rioters over the weekend, older black community leaders took charge.
A handful of black Detroiters spoke with the Detroit police leaders before the end of the march, and officers allowed the community leaders to help disperse protesters Monday night, June 1. As protesters lingered in the street, many looking for their cars, police arrested a handful of stragglers after the city’s 8 p.m. curfew.
Keith Bennett, director of Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, said he and others acted as middlemen between police and protesters.
“We were told to tell people to get in their vehicles and go home,” he said.
The riot police were staged at Detroit Public Safety Headquarters, 1301 Third Street, which is where the march began at 4 p.m. As the protesters took a left on Third Street away from the building and the wall of officers, Perez was momentarily inconsolable on the concrete.
The 16-year-old told an older black demonstrator that he felt he had failed as a leader of this protest. The man lifted the teenager to his feet, escorted him towards Bagley Street away from the police, and told him to be proud of what he accomplished that day.
Among the miles marched and the people gathered, one of those accomplishments was minimal violence after three straight nights of police clashes with demonstrators.
Detroit police clash with protesters in third night of George Floyd police brutality demonstrations
The protest began with an hour and a half of speeches kicked off by Kate Stenvig, national organizer for BAMN (the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary.)
“I want to start off by saying that a badge is not a license to kill,” she said, referencing the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd by asphyxiation with a knee on the neck. “This is a movement against the people who are taking those things into their own hands.”
She also said it was an anti-Trump and immigrant rights rally. Large Mexican and Cuban flags waved throughout the march alongside signs with slogans such as “Black Lives Matter” and “White Silence is Violence.”
Many of the speeches prior to the march, including one by Angelo Austin, warned people to stay peaceful not to give outsiders the wrong impression of their intentions.
“We are not here to make a joke or a mockery of what this movement is about,” Austin said. “This is about police violence. which means we’re not going to bring violence into this city.”
With Perez at the front of the march reiterating this message throughout the four-hour walk, the peaceful intentions lasted. Minor arguments flared up between protesters and young men with rifles demonstrating their 2nd Amendment rights, as demonstrators asserted the guns were taking away from the message of the rally.
During the walk, drivers honked their horns as the crowd roared in approval. The biggest cheer came when a train on an overpass sounded its siren. The movement also found time for contemplative silence, as the throng crossed the I-75 bridge with their mouths closed and their hands up, a reference to the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” chant that echoes the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
By 8 p.m., the protesters confronted the Detroit police. At first, they yelled for the police to take a knee with them. When none of the officers budged and ordered the crowd to disperse, community leaders directed the crowd to stay safe.
Detroit Police Commissioner Willie Burton called Monday’s protest “more peaceful.”
“They were not rowdy,” he said. “They were a peaceful group. We were making sure the protest remained a peaceful assembly.”
Over the first two nights of protesting, Detroit police reported over 140 arrests, the majority involving people who live outside the city of Detroit, Chief James Craig said. The last two nights saw a handful of arrests.
Protests also took place in Ann Arbor, Jackson and Grand Rapids on Monday.
More on MLive:
Police brutality protests in Michigan: What you need to know from this weekend’s rallies, riots
MLive photographer struck with rubber pellet
84 arrested on second night of protests in Detroit
Detroit protest turns violent on second night
1,500 attend first Detroit protest
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