Inviting the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to investigate, organizing marches during city council meetings, and demanding the Mobile City Council host their meetings at night were among some of the proposals from a rally Thursday focused on concerns about policing in Mobile.

The gathering, billed an “emergency community meeting,” was the first to occur in the aftermath of Jawan Dallas’ family viewing police-worn body camera footage from his July 2 death. Dallas died after what has been described as a violent encounter with Mobile police officers.

Harry Daniels, an attorney representing the Dallas family and who has seen the body camera footage, compared Dallas’ death to George Floyd, the Black man whose killing in 2020 while in police custody on a Minneapolis street ignited protests across the country over police brutality and racial injustice.

Daniels told the media on Nov. 22, that Dallas was struck at least 13 times with a taser while pleading for his life.

“We are here to serve notice to Mayor (Sandy) Stimpson, Police Chief Paul Prine, District Attorney (Keith) Blackwood, and the city attorney that we are not playing,” said the Rev. William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, during the two-hour rally at All Saints Episcopal Church in midtown Mobile. “It doesn’t matter what color you are. If you are holding office, you need to be about justice for Jawan. Nobody gets a pass.”

Rally scene

The rally included chanting, songs, prayer, and emotional remarks from Dallas’ mother and father – Christine Dallas and Phil Williams.

But it also included an update from Daniels over his views about the body camera footage and what is expected to be a federal lawsuit filed against Mobile over the police department’s handling of the incident.

“How can a person who is innocent and has a right to freedom be accosted by law enforcement, beaten and tased and no one is held accountable for his death?” Daniels said.

No one with the city’s administrative offices was in attendance. Only three members of the council – President C.J. Small and Councilmen Cory Penn and William Carroll – attended the rally.

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s office has since released a statement expressing different views over their interpretation of how police handled the encounter with Dallas.

Stimpson has said the body camera video was only one piece of evidence in the investigation and said that Dallas died “clearly due to cardiorespiratory failure and mixed drug intoxication.”

Authorities have declined to release the body camera footage to the media or to the public.

“We’ve made several statements about the facts of the incident involving Mr. Dallas, and the actions of the MPD has taken to have that incident reviewed by the Mobile County DA’s office, a Mobile County Grand Jury, the City of Mobile’s Office of Professional Responsibility, and the Department of Justice,” said spokesman Jason Johnson. He declined to further comment, saying the matter is “likely leading to litigation.”

Blackwood, whose office did not respond to the comments made during Thursday’s rally, also said that Dallas died from “underlying medical conditions” and not from Tasing. Blackwood, on Nov. 16, announced that the grand jury had cleared police officers of any wrongdoing. The officers involved in the altercation with Dallas were allowed to return to their patrols in October, a few weeks before Blackwood announced the grand jury’s findings during a news conference.

‘Absolutely innocent’

Daniels has declined to go into details about their legal strategy, but he added federal court action is likely.

Barber said the Department of Justice needs to get involved, adding “there needs to be a serious investigation.”

Daniels said on Thursday that Jawan Dallas should have never been approached by the police officers because he was not doing anything wrong at the time officers were responding to a burglary call in Theodore.

“Jawan was absolutely innocent,” Daniels said. “We talk about George Floyd, and I’m not comparing cases. But the police were called to George Floyd. Jawan was absolutely innocent (and police were not alerted to him at the time they responded to the burglary call).”

Daniels added, “He was at least 500 yards away. At least two football fields. They did not go to the location where the complaint was at. They only learned (by the time they arrived) about a trespass. That’s a misdemeanor. Maybe a $15 fine. We’re not talking about the original call being a home invasion.”

Daniels said that Dallas died because he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Seeking activism

Barber, meanwhile, urged the public to attend council meetings and to form committees within their churches aimed at getting more people involved. The majority of the people attending the rally were representatives with local activist groups, pastors and politicians.

The concerns are not just on how Dallas died. Aside from Dallas, three other Black males have also died following encounters with Mobile police this year:

• Kordell Jones, 25, was shot by authorities on March 7 as he ran out of a house naked and carrying an AR-style gun while police were raiding a home in search of his brother.
• Christopher Jones, 24, was shot and killed Oct. 2 on Glenwood Street during an altercation with police while he was on the roof of a residence. Officers ordered Jones to come down from the roof, and he complied, only to produce a shotgun and point it at police, according to authorities. Jones was shot and killed.
• Randall Adjessom, 16, was shot and killed Nov. 13 as Mobile police were searching a home for a relative. His death prompted Stimpson to immediately order most pre-dawn raids be suspended. Police were looking for 18-year-old DeAngelo Adjessom, who was not at the home when they descended on the property. DeAngelo Adjessom turned himself in to the police and was arrested on marijuana charges. The incident also prompted the administration to ask former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, Kenyen Brown, to review the police department’s policies, procedures and training as it relates to the use of force. Brown served as the U.S. Attorney during the Obama Administration, from 2009-2017.

At least three people running for the 2nd District congressional race next year were in attendance, including state Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham, who asked Barber and Daniels about what approach lawmakers should take to improve state law on body camera transparency.

A new state law, effective on Sept. 1, allows people whose image or voice that is the subject of a body camera or dash camera recording to file a written request to view it. An attorney, parent, spouse or another designated representative can also make the request.

But the new law does not require police to release the footage. And the Alabama State Supreme Court, through a 2021 ruling, claimed the footage is not subject to the state’s open records law.

The Dallas family has demanded for the public release of the footage. The city does not plan on releasing it.

“I’m not knocking any legislation … at least you got something,” Daniels said, referring to the passage of the legislation in the spring through a supermajority GOP Legislature. “It needs to be more than that. Transparency is the key. You need to know what is happening in your city.”

Barber recommended that lawmakers who sponsor body camera legislation next year “invite this community to the Statehouse,” and hold rallies and news conferences.

“Elected state reps in this community ought to be at some of the marches at the city council and demand we pass (a new) law so people can see (body camera footage),” Barber said.

Daniels also recommended city activists consider filing a lawsuit if the council doesn’t change the hours that it holds council meetings. Mobile’s council meetings have, for years, taken place at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday mornings.

Mobile isn’t the only large city in Alabama with meetings that take place during the morning. Birmingham’s council meetings take place at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesdays.

Said Barber, “change these meetings to a time when working people can make it.”