After protests, what happens next?

ASHEVILLE – The question isn't so much why their protests matter, when in reality the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers happened hundreds of miles away.

The real question is what happens next locally to keep frustrations from boiling over into violence as they have in other parts of the country, community activists say.

"The environment here is ripe for it," said James Lee, a minister at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church. "It's almost like having an open flame in a room with gas. It's only a matter of time before something explodes."

Hundreds of people have joined in at least seven rallies across Buncombe County since a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown and another grand jury in New York City failed to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, who was allegedly selling loose cigarettes.

In some cases, demonstrators held pictures of Reynolds High football player A.J. Marion, who was killed in 2013 by an Asheville police officer following a residential break-in, report of a gunshot and ensuing foot chase.

Like Brown, Marion was unarmed and the officer was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

Black Americans have spent decades under siege, said Tyrone Greenlee, executive director of Christians for a United Community, a local nonprofit interdenominational collaboration of churches that works to address the root causes of racism and racial disparity through advocacy, education and training.

Today's racism is less overt but systems of privilege are very much still present, Greenlee said. Protests locally have reached a level of intensity not seen since the Civil Rights era, he said.

"All this talk of police brutality and unarmed black men being killed has unearthed a lot of emotion and frustration that has been pent up for years," Greenlee said. "People are angry. There is an overwhelming sense that we have not been listened to and that it is time for that to stop."

In Asheville, the police department has 220 officers. Eighteen, or 8 percent, are black. The 2010 Census found Asheville is 79 percent white and 13 percent black.

The department's 50-page Strategic Operational Plan for the next three years includes less than two pages on developing a recruitment strategy to attract a diverse and talented workplace.

APD reported 82 incidents involving the use of force in 2013, with arrests being made 76 percent of time.

Of people targeted, 52 percent were white. Thirty-four percent were black.

"Instead of talk down, they want to take down, and what we're saying is that we have a justice system that does not seem to be fair," said the Rev. Keith A. Ogden, who is the senior pastor at Hill Street Baptist Church.

The dissent takes many forms, from public rallies, to behind-the-scenes meetings with officials and formal demands for change.

"The white community is getting sick and tired of what they're witnessing," Ogden said of the protests. "It has to be more than talk. There has to be a call to action."

The call to action

One call for action came in a Dec. 4 letter from John R. Hayes, president of the Asheville Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to the Asheville mayor and City County.

Hayes said he wants to see mandatory police training on racial bias and use of force; heightened monitoring and accountability, including the requirement of body and vehicle cameras; increased community education on individual rights; growing community oversight of law enforcement; and the creation of a law enforcement commission to review policing tactics that would include representatives from the most affected communities.

"Nobody is against police officers," Hayes said. "We're just saying that there needs to be better awareness of the great responsibility that they have, and that shoot to kill should not be the top thing on their list."

"It should not be where a person can take a life and nobody is held responsible," he said.

A recent rally in Brown's honor ended with a speaker listing the names of black men killed by police in North Carolina.

Protesters held up pictures of Marion, the former Reynolds student.

According to a State Bureau of Investigation report, multiple officers saw Marion with a gun, heard a gun discharged and one officer said Marion pointed a gun at him. Marion did not have a gun when he was shot.

African-Americans are eager to share personal anecdotes of racial profiling and the fear they have for their children being raised in what they say is still a racist world.

In 2011 the U.S. Department of Justice Police-Public Contact Survey presented a national audit of traffic and pedestrian stops. African-American drivers reported being pulled over 13 percent of the time, while white drivers reported being pulled over 10 percent of the time.

Roughly 3 percent of drivers were searched or frisked by police. Whites were searched at a lower rate (2 percent) than African-Americans (6 percent). African-Americans also were less likely to believe the police behaved properly during the encounter.

Just last week, a police car was following Lee, who was driving with his teenage son and daughter.

"Suddenly, this fear came over me," Lee said. "I was afraid because my kids were in the car. What was I supposed to instruct them to do? To put their hands of on the roof? ... I imagine this is a very different reaction than white people have."

The response

Racial profiling and aggressive behavior by police officers does exist, but it comes from a small percentage of officers, said John Midgette, director of the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association in Raleigh.

Emotional outcry from protesters around the world is just that, Midgette said — unfettered emotional responses to visuals with little attention to the facts and the rule of law.

"We're in a new age where people get to visualize something and draw their own conclusions as opposed to just allowing the system to work," the former police officer said. "If we start enforcing the law based on emotions, that is not about holding officers to a higher standard, that's about vigilante justice, and that can't stand."

"Have we done a good job in reaching out to the public? In some cases, maybe not," Midgette said. "More interaction is necessary and certainly police departments need to have more open dialogue with any group of citizens who lack trust in police."

Every officer at the APD undergoes training that focuses on conflict reduction, interaction and crisis intervention, city spokesman Brian Postelle said.

The Asheville police force has been ahead of national trends in training in crowd management strategies and has been a leader in community policing, remaining available and visible in the city's neighborhoods, interacting with the public and relying on those relationships to create a safer community, he said.

What next?

The list of groups wanting to improve those relationships and race relations in Asheville is extensive.

It includes HoodTalk, an organization focused on empowering black youth and attempting to address racism and police oppression in the community.

YWCA Asheville has the mission of eliminating racism and empowering women. Building Bridges works to confront and overcome racism though education and support.

But even with those efforts, people still talk in silos on the issue of race, activists said.

Ogden and others have organized Black Lives Matter at the Hill Street Baptist Church in Asheville on Sunday evening.

African-American churches across the country have declared Dec. 14 as Solidarity Sunday.

Meanwhile, in between his busy schedule, Lee, who also has his own consulting business and is a training coordinator at Asheville-Buncombe Technical College, is trying to get nonprofit service providers interested in race to all meet before Christmas.

"We need to define what the future looks like and how it will be formed," he said.

Community activist DeWayne Barton is also looking for a way forward. The organizer is interested in Asheville's gentrification and development.

"After the protests, what is the organized structure?" Barton asked. "What does the plan look like? Who wants to develop a plan? Let's get together so we can make this city a model."

"We need greater connections," Barton said. "The people and the bodies are here."

Local efforts to find solutions

•Faith leaders plan to host Black Lives Matter at 6 p.m. Sunday at Hill Street Baptist Church, 135 Hill St. in Asheville. African-American churches across the country have declared Dec. 14 as Solidarity Sunday, encouraging all people who attend worship to wear black to send the message that black lives have value.

•Activists have also organized HoodTalk for people interested in engaging in a long-term effort to address issues of racism and police oppression in the community. All are welcome to attend the next meeting 6-8 p.m. Dec. 18 at Klondyke Apartments.

•After canceling a police support rally, area conservatives are encouraging people to show support for the police by sending them holiday and thank you cards. The Asheville Police Department can be reached at 100 Court Plaza, Asheville, 28801.

•Building Bridges, a local nonprofit that works to confront and overcome racism though education and support, hosts two annual nine-week classes for the public about race relations in the community. Its next session runs Jan. 26-March 23.