Rally Speakers Demand “No More Dead Kids!”

An orderly rally on the steps of Pasadena City Hall Tuesday evening saw speaker after speaker decry the shooting of Kendrec McDade by Pasadena police and demand justice before a sign-waving crowd of about 150.  Police stood nearby.

McDade’s father, Kenneth McDade, and grandmother, Henrietta McDade, spoke as his mother Anya Slaughter stood struggling to hold back tears.

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The rally focused on shootings of young black men and in particular of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Kendrec McDade in Pasadena.

McDade, who pursuing police shot to death after they say they thought he was reaching for a gun in his pants waistband, was killed on March 24.

“It’s tragic. This seems to be a cold-blooded execution of a young man who was unarmed. We can’t allow officers to become the judge, jury and executioner,” said one speaker, Najee Ali of Project Islamic Hope.

The event was spearheaded by Martin Gordon of the Pasadena Community Coalition, Joe Brown, President pf the NAACP Pasadena branch, Michelle White of the ACLU/SC Pasadena-Foothills Chapter and Armenian Community Coalition Chairman Khatchik Chris Chahinian.

“This event is open to all people of conscience!” Gordon said. “We must take back our city and remind our city representatives that they are accountable to the community. They represent ‘us.’ This is meant to be a day of Solidarity for all of Pasadena to show that our culturally diverse Community can stand together to affirm that we will do what is necessary to make our community safe.”

“Actually there is a very simple agenda/goal here,” Gordon said. “We need to show a unified Pasadena community that says ‘No more dead kids in Pasadena’ (by anyone, that includes police, gangs, vigilantes et al.).”

“You have to give people an opportunity to get [up] and say what they are going to say,” Brown said.

Gordon said that as a follow up to the event, the community groups hope to meet with City Manager Michael J. Beck and the Chief of Police Phillip Sanchez to get further clarification of the facts in the Kendrec McDade case and answers to “some burning questions that have been brought forward by the community, numerous organizations and legal analysts.”