Boston Pastor: Protesters Need To Be 'More Thoughtful'
BOSTON (CBS) - Disrupting for the sake of disrupting, that's how long-time activist Reverend Jeffrey Brown of Twelfth Baptist Church described the protests blocking I-93 on Thursday morning.
"I just think that people need to be more thoughtful about the message they're trying to get out there and the message the way it comes," said Rev. Brown. He said he does not know anyone among the protesters or if they are actually affiliated with a specific group.
Photo Gallery: I-93 Protesters
Almost all of the protesters were white. They sat across I-93 chained together and with concrete-filled barrels.
One said this was their mission: "Our attempt was to take an action to confront the fact that there's a lot of complacency around state violence and racism in Massachusetts and beyond."
In Roxbury's Dudley Square, Virginia Thomas was one of several people who questioned the effectiveness.
"There's a time and place to do things and it probably wasn't the right place. But maybe their intentions were in the right place," said Thomas.
Rev. Brown hopes commuter anger toward the group of protesters does not impact the message of the Black Lives Matter movement.
"They need more direction and the movement itself needs to be protected from folks who do whatever they want to do," said Rev. Brown.
Rev. Brown said he hopes the events on 93 encourages the different groups in the Black Lives Matter Movement to work together to create a clear strategy and engage in dialogue to bring about change between African-Americans and police.
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