Activists Make Hoover Their Focal Point For Protests
The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked daily protests in Birmingham and surrounding cities.
Now, three months later, the protests have died down except in Hoover.
Protesters continue to hold almost weekly protests in Hoover, where police killed a black man at the Riverchase Galleria Mall in 2018. The officers involved were never publicly identified.
The group said that while the other cities have agreed to review department police policies, Hoover has been silent.
Karan Vance with Alabama Rally Against Injustice said talks are at a standstill.
“We want them to listen to us,” she said. “And until they listen and actually start to change things, we’re going to keep protesting.”
Earlier this month, about a dozen demonstrators with Cell A65, staged a “die-in,” in which they laid on the ground to imitate dead bodies, at the Riverchase Galleria. But they were met by Hoover police.
Vance said officers used unnecessary force while detaining protesters.
Allan Rice, Hoover’s City Administrator, said there’s a false narrative created around the department, especially the way police have dealt with protests.
“We’ve seen a recurring narrative where protesters antagonize the police and say and do things that they may have a constitutionally protected right to do,” he said. “But that certainly set the stage and the police have shown tremendous restraint.”
Rice said city officials aren’t ignoring the protesters’ demands. Mayor Frank Brocato met with them once. But Rice admits Brocato’s re-election campaigning got in the way of further conversations. He said now that Brocato has been elected for another term, city leaders can focus on meeting with groups willing to have productive conversations.
Editor’s note: The original story identified Alabama Rally Against Injustice as the group holding frequent protests in Hoover. Various groups, including Cell A65, are among those protesting regularly in the city.
YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24 million to settle lawsuit over Jan. 6 suspension
YouTube is the latest social media company to pay Trump tens of millions of dollars to resolve lawsuits brought before he returned to power. The money will fund a new ballroom at the White House.
From painting to producing: Birmingham DJ Andrea Really releases first album
Birmingham DJ Andrea Really wasn't always a music producer. She used to be a prolific painter. But when her art studio burned down in 2017, she pivoted careers. Really spoke with WBHM about that journey upon the release of her first album this summer, called Zeitgeist.
A year after Helene, a group of raft guides embarks on a river clean-up mission
A popular rafting river in the Appalachian mountains is still closed a year after Hurricane Helene, because there's just too much debris. Now, rafting guides have come together to help clean it up.
Lesotho’s Famo music: from shepherd songs to gang wars
In Lesotho, a style of traditional accordion music called Famo has become entangled with deadly gang rivalries. Once the soundtrack of shepherds and migrant workers, today it's linked to killings, government bans — and a fight over cultural identity.
Comic Cristela Alonzo grew up in fear of border patrol. ICE has ‘brought it all back’
For the first seven years of her life, Alonzo lived in an abandoned diner in a south Texas border town. Her new Netflix stand-up special is called Upper Classy.
Compass-Anywhere real estate merger could squeeze small brokerages
The deal, announced earlier this week, would combine the two largest U.S. residential brokerages by sales volume.
