Their kids were all killed by police. Now, they’re leading a movement

The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

Bianca Austin:

Every year when we celebrate George Floyd, we celebrate him because we in a movement. We going to keep this shit moving, y’all. Say his name! Say his name!

Rapper:

Stand up for your rights that had nothing at all,

beyond the scope, be hope to the people I sworn,

no matter the cost I let it be known…

Rev. Dr. Greta Willis:

But in the hearts of mothers as we in this remembrance, a celebration, a heavenly birthday for George Floyd. If you remember on that particular day, in those nine minutes and those 26 seconds, if I truly recall, that he was calling out for his mother, as he was calling out for his mother because he knew that the comfort was with his mother. As there are mothers that are here, mothers such as myself and the other mothers that’s a part of this particular party, this organization, a place that we did not ask to be in. We didn’t ask for our sons and our daughters and our loved ones to be shot down with state-sanctioned violence. We didn’t ask for their lives to be taken unjustly. But as a mother that knows the love, the unity because we carried our children in our womb.

Marion Gray-Hopkins:

I am Marian Gray Hopkins. I’m the executive director of the Coalition of Concerned Mothers. It’s an organization filled with, unfortunately, a sorority of mothers that have lost their children to police brutality and community violence. Today we’re going to focus specifically on the police brutality part.

And we felt that there was a need for this organization because we didn’t see anywhere to go where someone could understand and could feel our pain with the loss of our children.

Pamela Brooks:

Hi, my name is Pamela Brooks, and I’m the mother of Amir Brooks. I’m standing here in solidarity with other families on the day of George Floyd’s birthday.

Brenda Joyner:

I’m the mother to Trey Joyner. I’d just like to say today that it’s been 16 years since Trey been gone. He was killed [on] June the 8th, ’09, by the US Park Police. He was shot nine time in the back. They tell y’all that he was shot twice, but Trey Joyner was shot nine times all in the back.

Russell Ellis:

Archie Elliott, please make space for Archie’s mother, Dorothy.

Dorothy Copp Elliott:

I live in Maryland. I live close to the site where my son was killed on June 18, 1993. He was on his way home from work at a construction job in Virginia. I guess he had driven about 66-some miles to get to the point where he was when the officer pulled him over because the car was being driven erratically. And they set him on the curb for a long, long time, a very hot day, and they alleged that my son was pointing a handgun at them with his hands behind his back. They discharged their weapons 22 times, going all around the cruiser.

Marion Gray-Hopkins:

I am the mother of Gary Hopkins Jr. Gary was the 19-year-old unarmed young man that was murdered by two Prince George’s County, Maryland, police officers on Nov. 27, 1999 following his attendance at a dance at our local fire station in Lanham, Maryland.

Russell Ellis:

I’m talking about police brutality. We were in Akron protesting them shooting Jalen Walker 99 times. And Jake was literally just standing there, and they came up and tackled him to the ground and started beating him until he had a seizure. Now, they sued the Akron Police Department because fuck the police and they won that lawsuit, and that’s what we got to do every single time.

But I’ve known Jake for a real long time. He’s been in the movement forever. His son, Jacob Blake, was shot in the back by Kenosha Police Department seven times, and luckily he’s still here, but his life forever changed; he can’t walk, all because Kenosha PD couldn’t deescalate a situation. This is a common thread, a common theme. So, coming from all the way from Atlanta, Georgia, please help me welcome to DC Jacob Blake.

Jacob Blake Sr.:

I stood with these mamas from coast to coast. I look at these faces, see there’s some shit y’all don’t fucking understand. As a father, I’m a protector. And when this shit happened to my son, their son became my son. Their daughters became my daughters because this fight ain’t easy. This shit ain’t easy, man.

There’s a sound that these mamas make, and when you hear that moan, that motherfucking sound hits you deep down, deep down inside, man. It’s to see each one of ’em make the sound about their babies, man. And we act like we don’t hear.

Pamela Brooks:

Amir was, oh my God, he was such a loving boy. He played, he loved the dirt bikes, of course, and he loved to play the drums. He used to drive me crazy with those drums, banging, banging, banging. And one thing about him, he was 6 [feet] 3 [inches], but he was scared of spiders, and they used to have me laughing at him so bad. But he was such a good kid. He was in barber school, and he had just started barber school three weeks prior to his death, so he was only 17 years old. So, he had a lot of life to live, and I just wish we could turn back the hands of time.

Brenda Joyner:

Trey Joyner was a young man that loved everybody, just like his mom. He loved hanging around friends. He loved coming home, cutting jokes and stuff, having fun with his mom and sister and brother. He was a young man that in the neighborhood that always cared for the older people. If he was outside standing and one of the neighbors come in and they had groceries bags, the older ladies or the older men, he would stop whatever he doing, standing out there talking, and go and give them a hand, stand and talk with them. He was just a beautiful person to socialize with, and showing love, and always had time for everybody. I say when they come down to my son, he was a loving son, coming in the house saying, Mom, I love you, going out of the house, Mom, I love you.

Dorothy Copp Elliott:

My son was very jovial. He loves playing little tricks on people. He loved his family, he loved his little brother, who was turning 12 when he was killed. And a lot of times he’d ask me, even though we were separated, he said, Mom, what you like about Dad? I stopped for a moment. I said, I guess his gray eyes [laughs].

Pamela Brooks:

We demand accountability. We just tired of our cases being thrown to the wayside and getting no accountability. A lot of families, they do get civil judgements, but again, we want justice. We want police officers to be held accountable, being locked up. ‘Cause you could throw money at people all day long, but that’s still not going to bring your loved one back, and that money is tearing families apart at the same time. So, we would like accountability and justice. That’s the main thing we want, and that’s all I can say about that. We just want justice.

Brenda Joyner:

The US Department of Justice, that they start listening to the parents more. Be truthful. Do not let the parents go through what I had went through and where they could have told them the truth instead of just saying, we protect the police for what they do, but you don’t protect the citizen.

Dorothy Copp Elliott:

I want qualified immunity to go away. I want to see officers indicted when they’re done wrong. And I think that with the state’s attorney prosecutor of the homicide division, I was told that the lady who served on the grand jury at the time my son’s case was being heard, that she said, your son’s case should not have gone that way. She said the state’s attorney prosecutor just told them whatever they wanted to tell them. And I often wonder, what did they leave out? Because I think anybody could have found them guilty.

Marion Gray-Hopkins:

Yes, my core demands are that people need to get involved. If it’s not the Coalition of Concerned Mothers, there are many different organizations that are on the ground doing the work because we know that this is a systemic racism that we’re experiencing. And in order to make these changes, we all need to work together collectively in order to get the change we want and the change we deserve.