A march against police brutality is set to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday in front of the federal building downtown at 500 Poydras Street in New Orleans, with organizers demanding justice for three people whose deaths or shootings at the hands of police have drawn sustained local attention: one-year-old Kohen Wiley, Jace Lee Scott and Nolan Wells.
The New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is organizing the march and is urging, in the words of Fight Back! News, all who believe in justice to attend. The group is demanding justice not only for Wiley, Scott and Wells but for all Black lives it says were taken by police killings or covered up by police, according to the same report. The march program is expected to highlight families impacted by police crimes who are seeking justice for loved ones who were killed or incarcerated, the outlet reports.
A Toddler's Death Still Divides Investigators and Family
Kohen Wiley, one year old, was fatally shot in June in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, Mississippi, during an alleged shoplifting pursuit. The officer who fired the shot, Hunter Foster, resigned, and the Senatobia board of aldermen accepted that resignation on Wednesday, Oct. 21, according to ABC News.
The resignation came two days after the Mississippi Attorney General's Office concluded that the Senatobia Police Department's use of force was justified and announced no charges would be filed, per the same ABC News report. Wiley's family and their attorneys reached a different conclusion after reviewing the footage: they believe the shooting was not justified, according to USA Today. The outlet reports the family's attorneys now plan to seek a federal review of the case by the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI. Authorities released footage from three officers' body-worn cameras along with surveillance video from Walmart's entrance and parking lot cameras, the paper notes.
Two More Families, Two More Unresolved Cases
The march's demands extend beyond Wiley's case. Organizers accuse police of covering up Nolan Wells's death, and the push for accountability in that case predates Saturday's march. A 23-person grand jury determined no criminal charges were warranted in Wells's death, ABC News reports, and his family called for a federal investigation afterward. Both a private autopsy commissioned by the family and the official state autopsy found Wells's cause and manner of death to be undetermined, according to the outlet.
Jace Lee Scott's case has also fueled months of local organizing. In August, his mother, Shanta Scott, met with Mayor Helena Moreno's office to demand justice for her son, Fight Back! News reported. Earlier, a rally organized by the Jace Lee Scott Foundation brought families, community leaders and organizations to New Orleans Police Department headquarters, where they demanded transparency and accountability from officers accused of corruption and misconduct, according to WDSU.
Part of a Longer Pattern of Downtown Rallies
Saturday's gathering outside the federal building is not the first of its kind this year. On Juneteenth, 40 people gathered at the same spot on Poydras Street to rally for victims of police killings and for Black voting rights, the Fight Back! News story notes. Organizers say the march's demands include jailing officers responsible for killings, stopping police cover-ups and ending prison torture, per that outlet's reporting.
The push for accountability comes as the ACLU of Louisiana has rolled out a statewide data dashboard compiling available police killings and misconduct records. The organization says most of the misconduct data it analyzed comes from the New Orleans Police Department because its reporting is governed by a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the ACLU of Louisiana. The group notes that current state law does not require law enforcement agencies to report crucial misconduct data points, leaving gaps in what is publicly known about other departments across Louisiana.
