Black Lives Matter group protest takes aim at Tri-Cities police unit
Black Lives Matter protesters are calling for a change in the Tri-Cities Special Investigations Unit.
Blackformation is being joined by Luchadores por Cambio — Tri-Cities for a second protest aimed at changing how police investigate shootings involving officers.
The “Blue Lives Murder” protest is taking place from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday along Columbia Center Boulevard.
Police agencies across Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties are part of the regional Special Investigations Unit, which is activated when someone is shot or killed by officers. The agency involved with the shooting does not participate in the investigation.
Eugene Vi, one of the people behind Blackformation, has criticized the structure of the unit, saying it still amounts to police investigating themselves.
“Where in every case officers that have been involved in murdering members of our community, they have never been found to be at fault,” organizers wrote on the event’s Facebook page. “It is time to demand that the Special Investigations Unit be dismantled and replaced with a third-party investigatory firm.”
Blackformation previously held a protest in mid-August aimed at the Special Investigations Unit and the then-unfinished investigation into the Gordon Whitaker shooting.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 12:59 PM.