FLINT, MI – Sandra Branch was eight years old when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed April 4, 1968 in Memphis.
“I remember thinking what do we do next and nobody did anything,” said Branch. “We just waited and what were we waiting for? We were waiting for things to change and we just kept doing the same thing we’d been doing for 400 years. Praying and waiting.”
The 59-year-old Flint native became a police officer, in hopes of serving the community.
She worked as a deputy for seven years in Louisiana as part of the indigent release program, an experience that has given her insight on the inner workings of law enforcement and the criminal justice system as it takes a national spotlight in protests against police brutality.
Branch helped organize a Sunday, June 14 event to paint a portion of Martin Luther King Avenue, between University and Fourth avenues, to be painted with the words “Black Lives Matter” as a community art project in conjunction with Gallery on the Go, Black Lives Matter Flint, Community Foundation of Greater Flint, and the Flint Public Art Project.
Being a witness to the inner workings of law enforcement and the criminal justice system during her law enforcement career, she sees old things popping up with the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.
“It’s the same issues, training. Everybody shouldn’t have a gun that’s on the police force,” said Branch, vice president of the Flint Public Arts Project. “We could take that money that we’re paying them to carry the gun and purchasing the guns and the ammunition and we’re also insuring the liability.
“We don’t need all that. We need a mental health crisis specialist to go to a mental health call,” she said, urging for a return of community policing with officers who’ve lived in the cities they serve. “We need a child crisis specialist to go to runaway calls.”
The sentiments Branch shared are like those being discussed by Black Lives Matter organization.
She had been planning to do a Black Lives mural when tagged in a Facebook post by LuLu Brezzell, the mother of Mari Copeny, widely known as Little Miss Flint, about similar projects taking part in other parts of the country.
“It was time to invite the community and Black Lives Matter down so we wouldn’t have a muddled message,” said Branch, adding “All lives don’t matter until every life matters and right now we’re focused on black lives and those that want to support us. We will support everyone in their cause. It’s one cause at a time. Let’s be clear about it and let’s get that message out.”
The “actual shock” of Floyd’s death after Arbery and Taylor became too much to bear and led to the recent protests around the country and the world, Branch said.
“It was just like, it’s too much now,” she said. “We can’t march anymore with it meaning nothing and we need people to support us and people did support us.”
Branch applauded millennials for being out front and “taking this to the next level and I’m ready to pass the torch.”
She said the situation in the country is no longer about a single thing.
“There’s generational wealth, economic disparities, and the brutality (issues)… It’s like a fire coming from both flanks and closing in on us,” said Branch. “We see it now as a knee on our collective necks as a people. You look at this community and see all the people that came out.
“There’s white, black, Mexican, all kinds of people coming together for one cause because that’s what we’re really about and it’s peaceful,” she said.
Related news:
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Hundreds of people march through Grand Rapids in support of Black Lives Matter
‘It’s up to us’; Beecher protesters stand up to racial injustice
Teens hope to spur change in latest Grand Rapids protest over racism, police brutality
Flint youth call for people to ‘put words to action’ to fight racial injustice
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