CRESTVIEW — The NAACP's Okaloosa County branch wants to send a message to Crestview area residents: that black people's lives matter.
If all goes well, members will gather at 11 a.m. Saturday at city hall to march in protest of recent violence against black men.
The civil rights organization has a permit application, but hadn't filed it as of our Tuesday afternoon press time, according to Mayor David Cadle's office.
Raymond Nelson, the NAACP's local chapter president, didn't immediately return Tuesday morning phone calls, but a source close to the organization said the only delay is getting insurance for the procession.
Last Saturday, an NAACP gathering attracted 40 people to Chester Pruitt Park in Fort Walton Beach, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.
Long-time Crestview resident Mae Reatha Coleman said she hopes this weekend's proposed march can start a larger movement.
She can imagine the Hub City setting an example for the region, and even the nation.
"Crestview can be like a beacon," she said, if diverse groups come together to discuss perceived racial disparties and find solutions to widespread concerns.
'UNDERLYING RACISM'
"I don't care what color; all over the world and all over the United States, we still have this underlying racism, it's still there," Coleman said.
Locally, a Confederate battle flag flying on city-owned property bounded by State Road 85, Hickory Avenue and First Street raises concern.
Supporters have said removing the flag, a symbol of Southern heritage, would amount to erasing history.
But Escambia County commissioners' decision this month to remove a Confederate battle flag from the Pensacola Bay Center resonated with Coleman.
"Pensacola can remove the flag," she said. "You're gonna tell me I'm paying taxes for this blood flag … (a symbol of) something that killed my forbears?"
Another concern is some black residents' changing perception of police officers.
"When I was a kid, coming up, we were told the police were your friend. They're supposed to protect you," Coleman said. "Now, everybody I know's scared of the police."
RECENT CASES
The deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y., and Tamir Rice, in Cleveland, Ohio, have provoked national protests and discussions about race relations.
Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, fatally shot Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man, on Aug. 9 after an altercation; Wilson earlier determined that Brown matched the description of a man involved in a convenience store theft, according to the New York Times. Before their encounter and altercation, Brown stole several short cigars and shoved a convenience store clerk.
Witness testimony included conflicting statements, according to an AP review of the grand jury, but protestors believe Brown attempted to surrender with his hands up before the fatal shot.
Garner died July 17 after police, pursuing him for selling single cigarettes without tax stamps, placed him in a choke hold that violates NYPD policy.
He said, "I can't breathe," several times before his death, which a medical examiner ruled a homicide. A passerby captured most of the encounter on video.
Ohio police fatally shot Tamir, a 12-year-old they believed was carrying a gun, on Nov. 22, according to the Associated Press.
Those incidents didn't occur in Okaloosa County, but Coleman said they affect everybody.
"The killing is not here today for us, but it may be here tomorrow," she said. "If the killing's in Pensacola or Mobile or anywhere in the U.S., I'm gonna sympathize with it, because that could have been my child that got killed."
Coleman said she encourages Crestview residents of all races and beliefs to gather Saturday, if the march happens, and send a message.
"Let's come together," she said. "The killing needs to stop today."
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Thoughts? Email tboni@crestviewbulletin.com or tweet@cnbeditor.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 'THE KILLING NEEDS TO STOP': NAACP mulls march downtown this weekend