A coalition of social justice groups are holding another march at Phoenix City Hall Saturday afternoon to honor Dion Johnson and Breonna Taylor, calling “to abolish the system that killed them.”

“Our demands are specific,” said Michael Alexander, an organizer with Black Phoenix Organizing Collective, one of the groups organizing Saturday’s march. 

In addition to abolishing the police entirely, organizers said the coalition is also calling for a variety of measures including the firing of police who have killed people, independent investigations of police misconduct, releasing unredacted body camera footage of shootings and dropping charges against those arrested in connection with past demonstrations against police brutality.

They are also calling for the immediate firing of Department of Public Safety Trooper George Cervantes, who shot and killed 28-year-old Phoenix man Dion Johnson on May 25. 

Alexander said the coalition of organizations, include Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro, Mass Liberation, Puente Human Rights Movement and several others gathered with community members including the family of Dion Johnson to discuss tangible changes to policing in the city of Phoenix. 

 “A lot of community members don’t feel safe. And we will continue to organize and build coalition … so that we can demand to dismantle these white supremacist systems and create something that actually helps us all to thrive together,” he said. 

Johnson, a Black man, was sleeping in his vehicle while parked in the gore area on the side of the freeway near the Loop 101 and Tatum Boulevard. A DPS trooper discovered him with beer and a gun in the vehicle.

According to police, Johnson struggled with the officer, who fired his gun twice and Johnson eventually died of his injuries. The Maricopa County Attorney’s determined last month that Cervantes would not face any criminal charges in connection with Johnson’s death.

Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman was sleeping in bed when Kentucky police began knocking on the door and then forced entry into the home. Taylor’s boyfriend fired shots claiming he was unaware they were police. Police returned fire and Taylor was shot six times and died from her injuries.

There are conflicting eyewitness accounts about whether or not police did or did not announce themselves. 

A grand jury ultimately decided not to indict the officers in the fatal shooting. 

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or on Twitter @Mkayackley.

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