Lights raised at vigil

CLOVIS - There was a hint of rain, and the wind that is no stranger to eastern New Mexico was no friend to the candles residents aimed to light Saturday in honor of George Floyd.

But overall, there were only minor problems and multiple suggestions of solutions going forward in local responses to Floyd, whose May 25 death in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department sparked protests in all 50 states throughout last week.

A crowd that started off with just under 100 soon swelled to more than twice that Saturday night at Greene Acres Park, capping off four days of meetings and a Friday protest on Clovis' Main Street.

Kayala Gamble, one of the event organizers, said between 400 and 500 community members have signed up to help make changes, and that pool is being broken up into smaller groups to tackle specific issues. Gamble said the main organizers will try to meet weekly to check on the progress the various groups make.

"I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of support that we received and I was encouraged that so many people wanted to get involved," fellow organizer Kony Vaipan said. "I think we succeeded in bringing the community together, in calming people's concerns about the protests, and getting valuable input from the community about changes that folks want to see. Our challenges will be in moving forward. There is a lot of work to be done, and we hope that the community will continue to come together and be motivated to help us make the changes we need."

Speakers, some with addresses planned in advance and others inspired to speak in the moment, shared messages about demanding change while realizing change is a two-way street that requires kindness to strangers and voting to hold governments accountable. Volunteers were on hand at one of the park's picnic tables to register voters.

Among the speakers during the approximate 90 minutes:

• Virginia Byrd of Clovis said she'd seen plenty of racism throughout her life, and that changing things required systemic and individual changes.

"If you've never had a black person sitting at your table," Byrd said, "you need to invite one. We have to have more compassion with each other, a different mindset. The human race, that's all we are, and we're trying to find our place."

Byrd noted the use of "all lives matter" as a response to "black lives matter," and intimated it's like ignoring a house on fire because all houses matter.

• Mariah Brosseau recalled being on a mission trip at age 13, when she was told she couldn't go anywhere alone because redheads were prime targets for kidnapping, and noted other instances of being stigmatized because of her hair. She was horrified by those instances, but called them fleeting moments and couldn't imagine what it would be like to face that for your skin color every single day.

Vigil participants, with candles rendered useless by the wind, were advised to use the flashlight features on their phone. Those lights shone during a moment of silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the time a criminal report notes an officer's knee was on the neck of Floyd.

"That's too long," organizer Shaundra Mahan said, "for somebody to not use common sense, especially a police officer who's supposed to protect us."

Clovis Mayor Mike Morris attended the vigil, and thanked the participants for allowing city officials like himself to be confronted.

"I'm your mayor," Morris said, "even if you didn't vote for me. And I'm listening. Even if it's a difficult conversation, I want to have it because we need to have it."

Morris received a copy of the group's demands, but advised organizers to present them at a city commission meeting so it would be on a public record.

Much of the struggles, Gamble said, came from chatter on social media with doubts the events could be peaceful. But after the vigil, Gamble said the successes were apparent.

"We managed to give the community a space to be heard, to express their outrage and grief over another victim of police brutality," Gamble said, "I hope to God I never have to organize something like this again. But I would do it again because we have groups of people in our community who are very marginalized."

Out of the sight of vigil participants, the Clovis Police Department set up a mobile command center that included an MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle).

Organizers were not aware of the setup during the vigil, and when told about it questioned its necessity. Vaipan stressed law enforcement was supportive of the group's numerous events, but did have concerns about why such a setup was necessary.

"I do not support the militarization of the police in general, and specifically not at a time when police aggression is a national concern," Vaipan said. "To be clear, I do not believe the police had any ill intentions towards us, but I do feel like it was bad optics to bring a military vehicle to guard the vigil."

In response to a question from The News about the message sent by positioning a tactical military vehicle near a vigil for a victim of aggressive police tactics, Clovis Police Capt. Roman Romero said law enforcement had no concerns about vigil participants but placed the command center nearby as a precautionary measure due to numerous social media threats from outliers to hijack a peaceful demonstration and numerous reports of trouble in other larger cities across the country.

"As we stated in our Facebook post," Romero said, "'As with most occurrences that are tumultuous in other cities and towns, our community has again shown there are better ways. Through vigils and rallies our community peacefully objected to an offense that has set whole cities afire.' We believe in our community. We always have."

Over the course of the week, vigil organizers determined 10 things they demand going forward: 1) Quality education, 2) Strong vocational training, 3) Allow/celebrate diversity in schools, 4) Increased access to mental health services, 5) Police transparency and accountability, 6) Access to legal defense and accessible bail, 7) A living wage, 8) Better access and opportunity to start local businesses, 9) Revitalizing the community and 10) Participants holding themselves accountable to make change.