There was another major march against police violence in Boston yesterday. You might be saying to yourself, Sure, but there have been big rallies every day for the past several weeks, not just in Boston but outside of it as well. And you would be correct, though Monday’s action stood out, as participants marched from Roxbury to Beacon Hill, the same route that thousands traversed on May 31, during the first major Hub demonstration to follow the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month (there were also protests on May 29 and May 30, though not as large, and with less media attention).
On Monday, the “Juneteeth for Rayshard Brooks” rally, named for an Atlanta man who was shot in the back by a cop and killed last week, started at the Reggie Lewis Center, then carried through the South End and Back Bay and eventually on to the State House. Organized by Violence In Boston and Black Lives Matter Boston, the rally listed as a main demand that Gov. Charlie Baker “allocate adequate funding away from police and towards social justice and violence prevention.” A statement read:
We said #NotOneMore but we seem to be here again. Rayshard Brooks slept in his car in a Wendy’s parking lot and was awakened to officers and shortly after was shot twice in his back as he ran away. Juneteenth is supposed to be a celebration of freedom but Black People in this country are experiencing modern day lynching at the hands of Police Officers.
This article was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.
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Keiko Hiromi is a Japanese photographer based in Boston and Tokyo, Japan. Her work has appeared on NYT, People Magazine, Vanity Fair, El Pais, Der Spiegel, Boston Globe, PRI, ABC news, and other publications around the globe.
