Wichita protest leader calls arrest ‘scare tactic’ to discourage group’s gatherings
An organizer of a group calling for the city to defund the Wichita Police Department was arrested Sunday in connection with demonstrations held last week in the downtown area.
In an interview following her release from jail, 24-year-old Gabrielle Griffie said at least three people connected with protests organized by Project Justice ICT were arrested over the weekend after police watched them and others at their homes for hours.
Police, meanwhile, said as of Monday Griffie’s arrest was the only one associated with the protests. A department spokeman wouldn’t comment on her surveillance claims or answer other questions posed by The Eagle.
“I think that it was meant to throw us off our organizing game,” Griffie said, referring to her arrest and the police surveillance in a Monday morning phone call.
“It was a blatant scare tactic to try to keep the organizers of Project Justice ICT from marching in the streets.”
Griffie’s arrest follows a warning police issued to protesters Saturday that “charges will be forthcoming” in relation to recent protest activity the department had deemed illegal.
Police said in Saturday’s news release that the department had been monitoring and investigating protest activity occurring in downtown since Wednesday that included blocking traffic and allegations of protesters causing disturbances, vandalism, battery and aggravated assault with a gun.
The department said then that it “has always supported” people’s right to protest and “has previously worked alongside other demonstration leaders to ensure their groups were able to share their views safely.”
But, it contends, those involved in the downtown protests “refuse to demonstrate lawfully.”
Griffie was booked Sunday on suspicion of a misdemeanor crime: unlawful assembly.
“I absolutely think that it was unfair,” Griffie said about her arrest.
Griffie said Monday her group has refused to disclose its protest plans to the department because “you shouldn’t have to call the police to protest them.”
Police records show Griffie’s arrest is connected to an intimidation report from just before 10 p.m. Thursday in the 300 block of North Market. It’s unclear from the public portion of the police report exactly what prompted the allegation.
Project Justice ICT also gathered Friday evening in the nearby Delano Neighborhood, where it took over the roundabout on Douglas and Sycamore before marching into downtown.
Facebook video of the protest show the group taping a “Black Lives Matter” sign on the clock tower that serves as the gateway to the historic district and diverting motorists off of the main thoroughfare.
Protesters also pulled at least one person off of a motorcycle and another out of a car that sought to pass through the roundabout, the video shows.
The group has dispersed each night it protested without police intervention.
Griffie on Monday challenged the claims of wrongdoing cited in the police department’s news release.
She said the protesters only confronted motorists who threatened or attempted to drive through their crowd and denied reports of vandalism, saying protesters picked up after themselves and even collected street trash as they marched.
“I don’t care if we were blocking the street. It doesn’t give you the right to come and run into people.”
She also said some of the protesters were armed but insisted that the aggravated assault accusations are false.
“Somehow it just got all blamed back on the protesters.”
Griffie said she was at her Wichita home on Saturday when a uniformed officer in a marked car knocked on her door at around 4 p.m. and asked about Project Justice ICT’s protest plans. She said the officer tried to convince her to step across her threshold, she believes to initiate her arrest.
Griffie said after she refused, police watched her home until at least midnight.
She said she turned herself in on Sunday after a lawyer advised her to do so.
“They were at other organizers’ houses all day, too.”
Griffie said police officers have been present at every public demonstration Project Justice ICT held last week but never tried to break up any gathering or stop any crime that might have occurred
She said police also didn’t announce that the protests were unlawful while they were going on, like officers did when protest gatherings turned violent in early June at 21st and Arkansas.
“Instead of investigating or preventing any of these alleged crimes, they sat there in their cars and did nothing,” Griffie said.
Griffie said in addition to disrupting protests, she thinks police are cracking down because her group is calling for the city to funnel money from the department’s budget into services, like substance abuse and mental health treatment, that might strengthen the community’s social safety net.
The group plans to address the Wichita City Council at its meeting Tuesday.
“We need to put the power that the police hold over us back into the hands of the people,” Griffie said.
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 3:02 PM.
