The Hard Part; A Talk w/ Hsv./Madison County NAACP Pres. Jerry Burnet

My name is Jerry Burnett, and I'm the president of the Huntsfield Madison County Branch NAACP. Huntsville has had a few protests now up to 1,200 people coming out, so can you sort of start by saying what kind of work it takes to put together a protest like Wednesdays? On Wednesday, we had a number of groups in Oregon. Well, we had a number of groups to come together, which was a limestone county branch NAACP. We had our college chapters of NAACP from UAH, and I think some came from Oakwood. And each one had a role to play. And my role was to make arrangements to host the rally here in Huntsville, which originally, we had planned to host it on the courthouse square. But then that permit was denied, and we was moved from there to the Big Spring East, which kind of threw a monkey ranch in our operations,

because everyone was planning on protests and then a march after the protests. But then the city denied the permit to do the march. So after the protest was over, those members of the NAACP realized that we didn't have a permit to march, so we did not participate in the march after the protests. Did the city give you a reason as to why they were denying your request for the permit? It was because of what had taken place on that Monday night. That was some, it looked like there was some opposition with the police and a number of other things that had to get all into it, because I don't know the full details. But it was because of what had happened that Monday night was why they denied us a permit. So I would imagine, after 630, when they said, it was time to go home, did you stick around, or did you personally feel OK, it's time to go home? No, I was quite tired, because I had a lot of equipment to put on the truck.

So after we taken down our equipment, we had talked throughout the NAACP is to follow the rule of law. And in that case, there was no permit. So we had talked to follow the rule of law and to obey the officers, and if they give you a command, even if it's wrong, we'll talk to follow up, follow through, and then you sue the next day. With that in mind, we are left, because we didn't want to be accused of taking part in an unlawful assembly. And I know that, for a while there, when the protest was being planned, 8 o'clock was going to be the cut off. But then, sort of last minute, maybe a couple hours before it was changed to 6.30. Did you hear any feedback on that? Why that might have happened? I've gotten a number of questions as to why. They turn out like that. And my answer to them is because of the permit, if we had not authorized to march, then we don't participate in it.

Because if you're authorized, then you have the protection of the police to hold back the traffic. So if you're not authorized, then you take it up on yourself to occupy an area of block the traffic, then you become a law breaker. And we chose not to take part in that. Well, we are facing a couple of different, huge sort of daunting things right now, a pandemic, and then this unrest in the country over the Black Lives Matter movement. So with coronavirus focusing on that, how is the NAACP and other organizations telling protesters to stay safe when they go out to protest? It's pretty hard to maintain this social distance what they recommend. But we encourage them to be as safe as possible by where you may as and try to wash your hands as often as possible. And hopefully, you'd be all right. You were saying that the method that you go by

is with the protest, thinking of the Wednesday protest. You listen to the police, whether it's right or wrong, and then you sue afterward. When I was saying is that if a police officer asks you, we want to search your car. And he don't have a permit. Allow him to search it. You know, if you've got nothing to hide, let him search it. And then if he force you in to do it, force you, and who you had gun points, I want to search it, no matter what. That was a little rather than to get into a confrontation with them, then we are taught to follow his command. And if it's a law-breaking command, then you have an opportunity to sue him tomorrow. That's my point. It's because at the end of the day, we all want to go home alive. And a dead person, you get into a confrontation with a police officer. You probably would come out on the losing end because he have the badge and he have the gun. And in most cases, he got, whether he's right or wrong, he got the back end of the city hall.

The best thing that any individual can do in order to de-escalate is to follow his or her command and then live to see another day and meet them in the coat system and battle it out there. Do you see police here in Huntsville doing what you just described? You know, asking to search your car without a warrant. Things like that happening very often. We've gotten a number of complaints that individuals said that this is what happened. But to me, I haven't seen it personally and it have not happened to me. But I can only go by what I hear from other people. I spoke with the chief of police last Friday. And he was saying that he has a really great relationship with you. Do you tend to agree with that? I agree with that. We get along well and I have no heart feelings with the chief. You know, we work together well.

And if it's something that I can request of him and if he can accommodate good and the same thing goes with me, if it's something that I can do and we can, and the chief can work together on, we try to do that. We have a good relationship. We have an understanding relationship. I think that as long as we all abide by the law that's owned the books, then we will have a relationship. After 6.30, about what an hour or so after that, they allowed protesters to continue to whoever wanted to stay behind and chant and march and whatever they wanted to do. But then they advanced non-leafly irritants. They used those into, through those into the crowd, used rubber bullets, flashbangs, tear gas things like that. Do you think that was the right response for them to do? I think that might have been a little heavy-handed, but then I don't know how, what would be, you know, if they asked you to disperse, and if they give you time

to disperse, and then you refuse to disperse because you have the right to a protest, I'm not sure if that's the best thing to do. In my case, I would not have done it. You know, and I don't want to dictate how the police should carry out their responsibility. You know, I think that if anyone feel like they was abused by the system, then challenge them in the courtroom. And I read that the Huntsville Police Citizens Advisory Council is going to review the events that happen that night. Is the NAACP involved in that council, whether by comments or do you have representation on that? They have not invited us to be a part of that, so unless we're invited to be a part of it, then we probably would not be a part of it. It's the same way we're filing a complaint with NAACP. A number of people don't understand how the system works. They think that if something happened with them

and with whatever, then the NAACP should automatically just come to their rescue, but that's not how it worked. They have to file a complaint with us and invite us to be a part of, you know, if they want representation, then they need to file a written complaint with NAACP. I know there was some people that was there at Avarali on last Wednesday, and they had some remarks. They made some remarks about what we didn't do in their situation, but what they didn't do was invite us to be, we're not like Matt Dillon. We don't have a badge and we don't have deal-thoughted to just interfere in other people's affairs. What kind of complaints are you getting from people who are coming into your office about those protests that happened on Monday, June 1st and Wednesday, June 3rd? People haven't come into the office with a complaint. I've gotten a couple of calls. I want to know why that didn't happen.

Why wouldn't we there? We was not there because we didn't have a permit to be there. Our permit expired at 7 p.m. You know, like I said, we originally asked for a permit to march after the protests. It was denied. But then we have people that question, I had one lady sent me an email and asked me if I had prior knowledge of any police activity to follow, which I did not have in the prior knowledge. I think maybe she was wondering why wouldn't we there? We came prepared to make a speech and to go home. And that's all I had with my notebook and my, of course, I had electronic equipment for the PA system and stuff. And after the rally was over, we'd taken that home. Anything to follow that. We had no knowledge of, and we was not a part of. Can you give our listeners an idea of what you talked on in that speech? Well, in that speech, I talked about the, we're facing two crisis and one is the COVID-19

and one is the police brutality, it's just taking place. And it's like a double dose of bad luck. And I talked about what we could do to follow up on it like I encourage people that if you want real change, you have to register and to vote and to put politicians in office who would make policies and policies is what bring about change. And this is how the system works. That's what's good about a democracy. We all have a voice and our voice is amplified by voting and politicians hear us more clearly when we vote because they know that if we have the power to put them in office, then we also would have the power to pull them out of office. When we start exercising that right, we will see a change come. Politicians act on what the voting population tell them to do. You can go out into the street and you can march,

that's good, protest, that's wonderful. But to amplify that, we need to vote. We need to back it up with the power of the vote. That is the message that I try to deliver to the crowd. I want to acknowledge that you have been a huge advocate for voting rights and for getting people to register to vote for the last how many years would you say? Oh, well over 20. And it's hard to make a number of particularly young people understand that this is the most important thing that you can do to bring about change. Everything is driven by policy. And whether we vote or not, someone will be put in office. And whoever that someone is will make the policies and we will have to follow the guidelines of the policies that's put on the book because it becomes law. And if you do not follow the guidelines of the policies on the book, then you become a law breaker.

If someone is going to make a decision that I'm going to have to live by, I want to be a part of selecting that person who's making that decision that I've got to live by. You know, at these protests, there have been politician presence, local politician presence such as Maritalmi Battle, Council President Devon Keith. Do you think that protesters, especially young protesters who see them show up, is that going to, in your opinion, change the voter turnout this year for the better? I think if they hear from the politicians that's making the policies, it would help them to show up because they would know that whether they lack the policy that that politician is putting on the book or if they dislike it. If they listen to the mayor and not like what they hear coming out of his mouth, then they have a responsibility and an opportunity at the next election is to, well, I don't like what he's done, I'll vote him out at office.

That's your right. And if you give up that right, you don't have the right to complain. When you were at the protest on Wednesday, June 3rd, Chief Mark McMurray said that there were some out-of-town protesters who came in to stir things up, you know, start throwing things at police officers. Have you heard from people who said they saw those people from out-of-town or are you not really hearing that? I'm not aware of that. I can tell you this, that what people bring in, I don't know, they was bringing milk for Tillgate. So somebody came there with a different idea than what we had because we even questioned why they bring in milk to the rally. We had a voter registration table set up and there were people coming and bringing stuff that was unordinary for the have a just a rally, you know, because that's all we came for with a rally.

Maybe some other people came with different ideas, but I don't know, I don't have that intelligence, you know, what the chief was looking at, all I have is that word. Would you say that those events with the tear gas and the rubber bullets and things like that, the way that the police responded to those protesters who would not leave? Would you say there are any sort of similarities or differences between that and what happened during the civil rights movement at the protest here in Huntsville? I see that as a quite big difference between the civil rights movement and there was, I think there was a little harsher during the civil rights movement. They was using dogs and big heavy duty fire hydrants which would take the skin off people. That fire hydrant, the water with pressure was that high. I didn't see that happening here Monday on Wednesday. And the tear gas was, I guess they tear gased them back then,

but it was somewhat different. But similarities, yes. And then too recently, we've seen as many whites that it is black, that's protestant, which back in the day, there was a lot more, just about all blacks, but there was a few whites, but it was a big difference in the way that the police responded. Yes. These peaceful protests that are happening, as you said, are black, white, all kinds of races come in together to protest against police brutality. So what do you hope to see come out on the other side of these protests? What sort of future would you hope to see for our community here in Huntsville? I would hope that the police change its policies and I would hope that the police would not protect bad actors. You know, if you got a bad actor, it really shouldn't be protected no matter what.

You know, like right now we see them, they protect the police and they make excuse for them even when they're wrong. They shouldn't do that. Anybody do wrong, they should be held accountable. And I think that would make a big difference with citizens. A lot of people are wondering how they can help. They are wondering how they can bring more awareness to the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality. How would you say people could go about doing that the best way here in Huntsville and Madison County? By observing it and telling it like it is, you know, if you see it, tell it. Just be honest. Of course, I think the main problem is a lot of people is living in denial. If you know it's wrong, it's wrong, no matter what color.