Pastor Urges Church to March

In a rousing service Sunday, the Rev. DeWayne Butler implored his congregation to march for justice today, saying the district attorney’s findings in the killing of Tyisha Miller underscore that “police cannot police police.”

“It’s time to say enough is enough,” said Butler, whose cousin, the 19-year-old Miller, was shot a dozen times after police were called because she was apparently asleep with the gun in a locked car Dec. 28.

Riverside County Dist. Atty. Grover Trask on Thursday cleared the four police officers of criminal wrongdoing, although he said the tactics used to break a car window and try to grab the gun was a “mistake in judgment.”

The case has drawn national attention and sparked protests of police brutality because Miller was African American and the police officers involved were not.

Demanding justice, religious leaders urged the faithful at church services Sunday to protest nonviolently in a march today on City Hall.

In an impassioned sermon at the Bright Light Full Gospel Church of God, Butler said police officers cannot be above the law “if you’re going to have the power of life and death in your pistols.”

Tapping into the anger that runs deep, he accused the officers of killing his cousin. “They just shot her and shot her and shot her,” he said.

Later, Butler said there is a “lot of outrage” in the community, “but what to do? There are avenues to act and react without being violent. It’s OK to be angry. It’s not OK to react negatively.”

He stressed repeatedly that the march must be nonviolent.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist from New York, joined in exhorting the predominantly African American congregation to turn out and engage in nonviolent civil disobedience. “I come to stir up the people,” said Sharpton. “They killed this girl for no reason.”

Sharpton said it’s time for the U.S. Justice Department and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to file civil rights charges against the officers because state officials have been unable or unwilling to do so.

Sharpton is expected to be joined today by Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil rights leader, entertainer Dick Gregory, Brotherhood Crusade leader Danny Bakewell and others.

Before Sharpton and his entourage arrived at the Bright Light Full Gospel Church of God, congregants heard family friend Kelvin Taylor say that the decision to not prosecute the police officers “twisted the knife in the wound” caused by her death.

And then he performed a song he wrote. “Her life was snatched away,” he sang. But on a positive note he intoned: “I know justice will prevail.”

Members of Miller’s family mourned her absence this Mother’s Day. Her grandmother, Joan Miller, said the slain woman’s mother is “just sick to death” about the decision not to charge the police officers.

The Rev. Bernell Butler, a family spokesman, said the failure to prosecute the officers proves that “racism and biased treatment of . . . racial minorities is alive and well in Riverside.”

On Thursday, Trask had said that police were called to a dangerous situation where a gun was present. “Their response to that situation was a hastily planned attempt to break out the window and grab the gun on the victim’s lap, believing that some type of medical and/or safety emergency required their immediate action.

The officers have said they saw Miller arise and reach for her gun after they broke the window and fired to protect themselves.

Trask said he has asked the Justice Department and the state attorney general’s office to investigate possible civil rights violations because of racial comments made by other Riverside police officers after the shooting.

Wilson, president of the Tyisha Miller Steering Committee, told reporters there is too little training of officers in the area of racial sensitivity. “We have a problem with rogue cops,” he said. “Once a rogue cop is identified, he needs to be removed from the force.”

Outside the church, cousin Kimberly Butler said she will be marching today in downtown Riverside. The Dist. Atty.’s decision was the spark. “It brought back all the pain,” she said.