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News :: Civil & Human Rights |
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Longtime Pensacola Civil Right Leader Arrested |
Current rating: 0 |
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by NWFIMC Staff |
15 Oct 2004
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10/15/04 Pensacola- Longtime civil rights activist Leroy Boyd was arrested yesterday after a Pensacola Police Department investigation determined that Mr. Boyd had threatened a man with a rifle who had disrespected his home and family earlier in the week.
The man, Matthew Kelly, was part of a tree removal crew that had apparently cut part off part of a tree that damaged his house. According to Ms. Boyd's statement to the police, after the incident, Lavesta Boyd approached the workers to ask about the damage to her home when the man became upset with Ms. Boyd and started to call her names. An inside source said that the epithets were racial.
According to the PPD's press release, Mr. Boyd arrived home after the initial incident and asked what was happening. After getting into an argument with Mr. Kelly, Mr. Boyd then went inside his home a picked up his rifle. Mr. Boyd, according the PPD and the accuser, never pointed the rifle at anything but the ground. Mr. Boyd began pacing his driveway with the rifle and police were called out. It is not illegal to carry a rifle in public in Florida.
Mr. Boyd was quoted on WEAR TV from an unnamed police source as having said something to the effect that "this is not the 1920's anymore." WEAR TV did not say what the comment was referring to or put it in context. Nothing was said of the racial nature of the insults against the Boyd family.
The PPD's web site didn't mention the statement at all.
Mr. Boyd was not arrested at the scene and no arrest warrant was issued until recently. Mr. Boyd turned himself in on Thursday and was released on bond. He faces two misdemeanor charges in the incident.
Leroy Boyd, president of Movement for Change, has been active in the local civil rights movement for over forty years. His organization has been very critical of police misconduct over the years. Leroy Boyd, as president of MFC, was instrumental in the push for a Citizen's Review Board to have public oversight of the Escambia County Sheriff's Department. Most recently, Mister Boyd has been in the news for rallying to the side of the family of a man who was shot to death by an Escambia County Sheriff. The victim was unarmed.
Members of the Movement for Change have said that they support Mister Boyd and his family and are confident that this situation will be resolved in the near future.
Movement for Change is sponsoring an anti-police brutality march on October 23rd. |
This work is in the public domain |
