In Arlington, shared stories and voter registration kick off fourth night of protests
Her voice cracking with emotion, Morgan Jibown, 22, of Grand Prairie stood before more than 100 people gathered Thursday afternoon in a southwest Arlington park and told the story of being pulled over by police in Missouri, and the trauma that has followed.
Jibown said she was with several others when police stopped their vehicle along an interstate. After they pulled into a nearby parking lot, six officers pointed guns at them, she said. Jibown told the crowd that she has since been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
She was speaking at the community meeting, she said, in hopes that her story will spur police reform and prevent any more traumatizing situations.
“You can tell somebody they’re not going to go back to Afghanistan, and they’re not going to experience a landmine again,” Jibown said. “You can’t tell someone with my skin color they’re not ever going to be pulled over by the cops again.”
Jibown was the first of several speakers who stood in a pavilion at S.J. Stovall Park and shared stories, recited poetry and urged others to vote. With the heat index hovering around 102 degrees, the group then set off to march east on West Sublett Road in protest of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died beneath the knee of a white police officer in Minnesota.
Ian Pearce, a deputy voter registrar for Tarrant County, was there to register people to vote after seeing the event on social media
“If I care about Arlington, I need to be here,” he said.
Thursday’s discussion and march marked the fourth evening of protests in Arlington, which was part of protests across the nation and the world.
Sammy Cooper, a 20-year-old Arlington resident, who organized Arlington’s first protest Monday, also organized Thursday’s events.
Cooper said she wanted to give people a chance to discuss local and national events and “get their emotions out” and “opinions out.” She said she’s eager to show Arlington-area residents that they shouldn’t be afraid to speak out.
“When it comes to ... violence and human rights and things like that, nobody should be scared to speak up,” she said.
Cooper extended invitations to Arlington officials and community figures. Joanna Cardoza, a City Council candidate for District 2, was there to emphasize the importance of voting after she heard people at previous protests express doubt that anything would change.
“Especially in Arlington, where we don’t have a big turnout for municipal elections, every vote does matter,” she said.
After leaving Stovall Park, the marchers knelt at the intersection of West Sublett and Cooper Street for about nine minutes — the length of time video shows Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd, 46, to the ground. Chauvin, 44, has been charged with second-degree murder.
Some residents joined the march, which ended back at Stovall Park about two hours later, at around 7:30 p.m.
At Monday’s protest, which began on the Center Street bridge over Interstate 20, more than 200 people held signs with messages such as “My life matters” and “I can’t breathe.”
Cooper said she organized the protest after seeing there were protests planned in Dallas and Fort Worth, but none in her city.
Protesters left the bridge and continued marching near Arlington City Hall and Levitt Pavilion Monday evening. People blocked off the intersection of Abram Street and Center Street before marching through some of the city’s major roads.
The Arlington Police Department followed from a distance throughout the protests on the bridge and in downtown. Lt. Christopher Cook, police spokesman, said the department supported the protester’s right to speak freely and march, so long as they remained peaceful.
The protest was peaceful until the last leg, police said. Lt. Christopher Cook, a police spokesman, said some marchers threw rocks at police vehicles along the route. Late Monday, around a dozen people broke into retail stores near AT&T Stadium and in Parks Mall, police said.
Six people were arrested on rested on felony commercial burglary charges after stores including the Walmart at 915 E. Randol Mill Road, the Jared Jewelers and Arlington Jewelry Exchange were vandalized.
Mayor Jeff Williams did not enact a city curfew following the arrests. He said he supports the peaceful protesters’ mission, “but the violence needs to stop.”
On Tuesday, more than 200 people turned out to march again. The protest was peaceful save for an incident late in the evening, when someone threw part of a brick at an officer’s motorcycle near Buffalo Wild Wings, 1301 N. Collins St., Cook said.
Around 24 protesters gathered Wednesday at Abram and Center to call for fair and equitable treatment from authorities.
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 6:32 PM.