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Former Woodbridge Senior High School students and friends of London Colvin gathered in front of the school this morning on Old Bridge Road, protesting the recent incident where the 21-year old was attacked by a police dog in Norfolk.
Just a day after Norfolk Police Chief Michael Goldsmith came forward and stated that the amount of force used against Colvin was unreasonable, the protest signals a larger sentiment in the community that justice needs to be served for the Army Reservist and Norfolk State University student.
J’quante McGhee and Breanna Beasley, long time friends of Colvin, were the main organizers of this morning’s protest.
“I feel like what the cops did was wrong. There was unreasonable force they didn’t have to do what they did [with the dog]. They already had her where they wanted her,” McGhee said. “We need to stop the police brutality.”
“Seeing that the Chief said that the force used was unreasonable really lifted my spirits. That did make me feel a little bit better,” Beasley said.
While McGhee was happy with the chief’s words, he doesn’t feel like it’s enough.
“The [police department] needs to take further action. They need to follow up and indict the officers or whatever the case is – kick them out of the force – because they didn’t handle it properly,” McGhee commented.
In addition to signs sporting the “#justiceforlondon” hashtag, Beasley created t-shirts to wear for the protest, with the Army Reserve logo, and the Woodbridge Senior High School emblem.
“I got this made yesterday…a sign says a lot, but to me, this is not just a shirt for today. It’s a shirt that I can wear longer than today to say, ‘Okay, it’s not just something that happened today and we’re done with it.’ Me wearing this shirt is going to say it happened and we’re not forgetting and we’re not going to forget,” Beasley said.
For Beasley, the incident is something that is being echoed across the country, but now feels more personal than ever.
“It’s been happening around the country, but the fact that it happened here, to someone [I consider my] sister is just too close to home,” Beasley commented, referencing other cases of police brutality in recent months.
Another protest will be held at Norfolk State University this evening at the Douglas Wilder building at 8p.m., following a Division of Student Affairs Speaker Series event, where commenters on Instagram have said that the lawyers for the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases will speak.
