By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
Nearly one month ago, John Allen Fox was arrested for resisting arrest after a fight outside a local club spilled inside. Before his arrest, Fox was punched by a police officer, according to a video that was released.
A video shot by Groundbreaking Video Productions and later released online shows what appears to be Salisbury Police Officer Kareem Puranda throw a punch at Fox.
Fox and his family attended a Justice Rally that came about after the incident became public.
The rally, which was held Thursday at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 317 S. Caldwell St., was the idea of activist John C. Barnette of Gastonia.
Barnette heads T.H.U.G. ministries, True Healing Under God. He travels throughout North and South Carolina and other states to be a what he calls a “voice for the voiceless.”
Fox said before the rally that he hoped it would encourage others to come forward.
He said he was merely explaining to the officer that his brother, Michael Jeffrey Fox, was being compliant as he was being arrested by Salisbury Police.
“It was just verbal. I wasn’t talking violently toward him,” he said of Puranda.
Fox calls the incident embarrassing. The video shows Fox’s pants falling down as he is placed in handcuffs.
“It’s humiliating really, but if this is what it takes to get change around here,” he said.
Starlene Davidson, whose son Tyrone Chambers was recently convicted of robbery, spoke during the rally.
Davidson, at times pausing and crying, asked people to write letters to her son to show their support. Davidson said her son was falsely convicted. Barnette held a prayer vigil for Chambers in mid-August.
“No matter what you think about what the Salisbury Police does, we are here for you,” said Lt. Rodney Harris
Harris is an internal affairs investigator. He investigates citizen complaints to determine if the officer acted appropriately or inappropriately.
He said they are not faultless.
“Do we make mistakes? Yes, we do,” Harris said.
He said despite what people may have heard, the police department takes complaints seriously.
He even explained to people how to file a complaint and said they could remain anonymous.
NAACP member William Peoples said he would be the first to say the police department wasn’t perfect, but all the blame cannot rest at its feet.
“Sometimes the police department is only as good as they make it,” he said.
Peoples said the bigger issue was the problems the community has with each other.
He said young men should be told to pull their pants up and young women to cover themselves.
“Half the problems in society starts at home,” he said.
Scott Teamer, a private investigator and former police officer, evoked lots of applause and amens from the crowd.
“Everything can’t be blamed on these kids. I know they are crazy, but they are born with a fighting spirit,” Teamer said.
He called it a shame that someone from the outside had to come into town to “stir us up.”
“Our children are hurting. We need to let them know we will walk with them,” said the Rev. Olen Bruner, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church.
He said parents need to step up to the plate.
“They are all our children,” he said.
City officials and area ministers met with Barnette on Wednesday. Salisbury Mayor Susan Kluttz said the city already had been investigating this incident. Barnette said people have told him they want the officer fired.
Being at the rally reminded Lynda Carson of her own ordeal with law enforcement. In January, Carson was arrested at her home by Rowan County Sheriff’s deputies who had come to serve an arrest warrant on her husband.
Carson said she was slammed onto the floor and treated horribly by deputies. Her case has since gone to court and she received a year of unsupervised probation.
Carson plans to appeal. She believes she did not receive justice.
She said the arresting officer told the court Carson did nothing wrong.
Carson hopes this rally will put issues like what happened to her into the spotlight.
“There’s a lot of room for change. I hope he (Barnette) can shake them up,” she said.
She said hopefully someone’s finally listening.
“I hate these boys had to go through what they went through,” she said of the Fox brothers.
Because of her conviction, Carson can’t take her board exam for nursing, something she’s been working on for 10 years.
Sherry Hawthorne said the fight for today’s youth starts at home.
“We have to set a positive example,” she said.
Hawthorne hopes the event will bring the community and its citizens together.
She said there needs to be some place where children can go and be productive.
Charlotte Minister Larry Suber, who recently spoke at a gang seminar at Livingstone College, was also in attendance.
“This wasn’t my child and this wasn’t my brother, but it could’ve been,” he said after the rally.
He said teens need a different avenue and something to do with their time.
Suber grew up in the area and said he knows what it’s like. Suber, a former gang member, talks to people about what their lives could be like if they made the right choices. He attended to show support.
Suber is a minister with Jesus Christ Abundant Life Center in Charlotte.