Lezley McSpadden, the mother of slain Ferguson teen Michael Brown, appeared at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday as part of the group "Mothers of the Movement" — women who have lost their children in encounters with police or to gun violence.
McSpadden didn’t speak, but other women in the group did, including Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot to death in a 2012 encounter with neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman.
“Hillary Clinton has the compassion and understanding to comfort a grieving mother; she has the courage to lead the fight for common-sense gun legislation,” Fulton said. “And she has a plan to repair the divide that so often exists between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
“This isn't about being politically correct. It's about protecting our children.”
People are also reading…
The mothers fanned out across the stage and at one point McSpadden appeared to wipe a tear from her eye.
Their inclusion, without a presence of relatives of fallen police officers, upset local and national police groups.
Brown was shot and killed by then-Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in 2014. A St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict Wilson in the shooting, and an investigation by the federal Justice Department concluded that Wilson fatally shot Brown while reasonably fearing for his own life.
The women spoke after former Attorney General Eric Holder, whose Justice Department cleared Wilson of civil rights violations. The Justice Department later forced a consent decree on the city of Ferguson aimed at improving the city’s police department and courts.
“There should be no tension between protecting those who valiantly risk their lives to serve and ensuring that everyone is treated fairly by police,” said Holder, the brother of a retired police officer.
Mckesson says he has not acted in that role
Police organizations criticized convention organizers for shunning families of police officers killed in the line of duty.
"We were hoping that Hillary Clinton could be as good for law enforcement as Bill Clinton, but we've now seen that's not the case," said Jeff Roorda, business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers' Association and St. Louis County Police Association. "This is such a big wedge issue and the Democratic Party is on the wrong side of that issue."
Missouri Fraternal Order of Police president and Lee's Summit police Sgt. Rick Inglima said the announcement that McSpadden would appear made police "very concerned" and they "hope this is not going to perpetuate a message of hate that we've seen so often by some of the current movements."
"We certainly wish there was a place on the DNC stage for the families of the police officers who died doing what they loved, protecting their communities," he said.
