DETROIT – The 15th annual Silence The Violence march and rally returns this weekend after a hiatus due to the pandemic.
Community activists, elected officials, and organizations from across the state will join Church of the Messiah Saturday (June 4) to march in remembrance of gun violence victims.
That march will start at the church on East Grand Boulevard Saturday at 10 a.m., and with local shootings and multiple mass shootings, they want to honor gun violence victims by helping people get involved in the change.
“They’re not statistics,” said Reverend Barry Randolph. “They’re not files on somebody’s desk.
Seen in the video player above are the faces of gun violence in Detroit, filling the pews of Randolph’s church.
“They’re our loved ones,” Randolph said. “They’re brothers, sisters. They’re children. They’re fathers, mothers.”
This Saturday, hundreds of people will be holding those pictures seen in the video player above during the Silence The Violence march.
“This is not about the right to bear arms,” Randolph said. “This is about taking away people’s right to commit murder. So we’re literally talking about how do we keep firearms out of the hands of those who should not have one.”
Mothers like Mia Reid will be there in attendance as June 2022 marks 11 years since her son Charles Reid and his cousin Martez Norwood were killed in Detroit.
“We would have never imagined that would happen to him,” said Mia Reid. Just not him.”
Police never found the shooter.
“This is my justice,” Mia Reid said. “This is my justice, the Charles W. Reid Community Health Center.”
She helps other families left with the same pain through her nonprofit.
“To walk with these parents and build them up, and them build me up,” Mia Reid said.
While inspiring change at the local and national levels, Mia Reid says they feel sad.
“We feel sad about Buffalo,” Mia Reid said. “We feel anxious about Buffalo. We feel sad about those babies in Texas. And then we have to keep going, and we have to do something.”
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Pastor Randolph says that everybody is tired.
“And I think everybody’s tired,” Randolph said. “And it’s time for us to work together. And that’s what we’re going to do, and we want to give people an opportunity to do some tangible things that day.”
Mia Reid’s nonprofit will be one of 50 organizations that will be in attendance Saturday morning to help people get connected so that they can take action themselves.
Starting Friday, people will be wearing orange because Friday is National Gun Awareness Day.