After learning that the New York police officer accused of placing a chokehold on Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, would not be indicted in Garner's death, Katina White had had enough.
"It was videotaped. ... What can you do?" she said. "Black men can just be killed, and nothing's going to happen."
On Saturday, White, 35, of Little Rock joined others to march nearly 2 miles west along Capitol Avenue until reaching the Capitol steps.
The march coincided with ones in New York, Washington and elsewhere. Demonstrations have abounded nationwide since three recent high-profile killings of unarmed black people by police officers: Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.; 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland; and Garner in New York. In two of those cases, officers were not indicted by grand juries.
Saturday's march, watched over by Little Rock police officers, was silent, said Jessica Lawson, an organizer, "because actions speak louder than words."
Afterward, Lawson, 32, took to a podium and called for action.
"Take a step and call your city councilman," she said. "Take a step and call your state representative. Three thousand steps -- that's what you call momentum, and we can't afford to lose it."
Mondale Robinson, 35, outlined specific goals for the marchers and Little Rock: information on the Little Rock Police Department's hiring process, a task force on race relations, training and education for police officers on the communities they cover, and a state human-rights commission.
"We believe this is fertile ground, and we should plant here," Robinson said.
Robinson said Saturday's march wasn't about Ferguson but about years of the same problems in Arkansas, noting the lack of a conviction in the case of Josh Hastings, a Little Rock police officer charged with manslaughter in the shooting of 15-year-old Bobby Moore in 2012 while Moore was behind the wheel of a car. Hastings was fired from the department but had his charges dropped after two juries were unable to reach a verdict.
"We don't dislike the police," Lawson said. "We need the police. But we need to trust law enforcement, and we need law enforcement to trust us and realize that they need the community."
Lawson said that Saturday wouldn't be the last time the marchers were heard in the city.
She referred to a poem by Robert Frost, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," in which a man rides through the woods at night as the snow falls, reflecting on the beauty but remembering the promises he has to keep.
"We have miles to go before we sleep," she said. "We have miles to go before we sleep."
Metro on 12/14/2014