Protests After Sheriff Calls Drowned Florida Teens ‘Criminal’
Source: ABC News
Protests After Sheriff Calls Drowned Florida Teens Criminal
By PATRICK CLARKE
May 19, 2016, 5:31 PM ET
Two months after three teen girls drove to their deaths in a St. Petersburg, Florida pond following a police chase, activists are picketing outside the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office to protest the departments comments about the deceased girls.
"What really disturbed us the most is how the girls were characterized after their deaths," Devan Cheaves, a spokesperson for the event organizers, Bay Area Dream Defenders, told ABC News. "We want to redirect the narrative, that they are kids and not criminals."
Some 30 activists, along with the attorney representing the girls families, Michelle Whitfield, dressed in black and held signs that said Black Girls Matter and #SayHerName.
The rally organizers, Dream Defenders, are a Florida-based group of young social activists who call themselves an uprising of communities in struggle. They tied this protest to the upcoming "National Day of Action for Black Women and Girls" on May 21, to call attention to women who they say have been victims of police brutality. They use the hashtag #SayHerName in social media.
Chanting the names of the girls, the group briefly blocked a section of Ulmerton Road by forming a human chain before sheriffs ordered them to clear the road, according to reports.
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