by The Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - About 40 protesters marched on an empty City Hall on Saturday demanding reform in the Montgomery Police Department.
The group listed nine demands, including the resignation of Police Chief John Wilson, a public forum with city officials, sensitivity training for all officers, a citizen review board and video cameras in patrol cars.
One of the marchers, 17-year-old Billy Holloway, said he was taken into custody by two officers, beaten and sprayed with a chemical irritant behind Carver High School. He carried a sign that read “MPD - Public Enemy No. 1.”
“The police are crooked and everyone needs to know about it,” Holloway said.
Ten Montgomery night shift officers have lost their jobs for their alleged roles in kidnappings, brutality, falsifying evidence and false imprisonment. A federal criminal investigation is under way.
The protesters chanted and walked from Fairview Avenue up Rosa Parks Avenue and ended at City Hall. City Hall was empty because city employees have weekends off.
Wilson and other city officials couldn’t be reached for comment Saturday. Wilson has said he won’t step down.
Marcher Thomas Bass said the group wouldn’t tolerate “police brutality and other injustices perpetrated on the citizenry of Montgomery by the Montgomery Police Department.”
Protest organizers had hoped for a much larger crowd but the turnout shouldn’t diminish their cause, said one of the organizers, Shirley Briggs.
“I think there should be plenty more people here. If Martin Luther King were living, he’d be here,” said protester Terry Wooten.