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Demonstrators Press on Despite Low Turnout
Demonstration against violence takes place in Warren
By Jordan Cohen
WARREN
Blackout Warren, an attempt to mobilize the black community against violence in a noon demonstration Saturday, attracted only 14 people — well below the 300 organizers hoped would show up.
The low turnout did not dissuade participants who vowed to get more of the community involved.
“It only takes one to make a difference,” said Moneki Huff of Warren.
Some of the demonstrators were focused more on deaths from police confrontations in Ferguson, Mo., New York and Cleveland than they were about crime in Warren. Two of the signs read “Hands Up!!” and “Don’t Shoot”—a reference to the events in Ferguson and Cleveland where a 12-year old boy brandishing a toy gun was shot and killed by a police officer.
Police “need to take a different tactic before they take the life of a child, and we do need to speak out,” said Andrea Talbott of Warren.
Huff and some of the other participants, however, said their bigger concern is the violence on the streets of Warren.
“I’m not negating what you’re saying,” Huff said referring to the signs,
“but the issue in our city is that we want to stop this from happening.”
One of the organizers, Roderick Lewis Jr., 24, of Warren, had asked demonstrators to wear black as a symbol of death from violence. Nearly all of the participants did.
“We want to stop the violence in our community — all of it,” he said. “People have to help one another.”
Lewis made news earlier this year when he was charged with theft from an elderly woman, credit-card misuse and impersonating a police officer. He eventually was sentenced to a 60-day jail term and five years’ probation.
“Nobody’s perfect, I’m not perfect and I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve learned from them,” Lewis said in response to a reporter’s question.
Charlene Blackwell of Warren said her family has suffered from violence. She said two of her cousins were shot to death and their killers have never been caught. She had to mourn another tragedy when her 15-year old nephew, Ramone White, was among six young people killed in a March 2013 car crash in Warren.
“We’re not helping ourselves [and] by being silent, we’re helping tear down this community,” she said.
As for the black community’s relationship with police, Blackwell called for more dialogue with law enforcement.
“Police can’t be belligerent if they want cooperation,” she said, but added that the community has to cooperate to help combat crime.
“This is not about snitching — it’s about saying ‘this is wrong,’” Blackwell said.
The small group marched from the city police station to the Trumbull County Courthouse gazebo where Robert Lewis, pastor of Warren’s House of Prayer church, called for more parental involvement and emphasized that the demonstration should not be viewed as anti-police.
“We are not against the police,” he said. “Police need to be held accountable, but we need to be accountable for how we teach our children.
“It will be a happy day for me when we have more young [black] men in college than we do in our prisons,” the pastor said.