HUNDREDS MARCH AS JACKSON LEADS

School Drug Raid, Police Shooting Protested

BY JAMES SCOTT Of The Post and Courier Staff With chants of "Justice Now,"
hundreds of people took to the streets of North Charleston with the Rev.
Jesse Jackson on Tuesday to protest what the civil rights leader calls
overzealous police action.

Starting at Charity Baptist Church on Montague Avenue at 2:45 p.m., the
marchers, many singing hymns and carrying protest signs, made their way
west to North Charleston City Hall, a little more than a mile away.

Leading the procession was Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition,
who was in the last day of a four-day visit to the Lowcountry to protest
the recent drug raid at Stratford High School in Goose Creek and the
shooting death by North Charleston police officers of a mentally ill black
man suspected of stealing lunch meat.

"This is only the beginning," vowed Jackson, who wore a black turtleneck, a
dark blazer and high tops. "We will march again and again and again."

The hourlong march was followed by a rally in front of City Hall, where
Jackson was joined by some local and state elected officials as well as
several Stratford students who recounted having to lie down in the halls as
dogs searched for drugs. During his speech, Jackson echoed many of the
themes he touched on during his recent Lowcountry appearances, from the
loss of manufacturing jobs to overseas competitors to the lack of
registered voters in the black community. To combat what he described as
racialinequities in the work force, Jackson said he would start
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition chapters in North Charleston and Georgetown. The
chapters, he said, would work with the NAACP to fight for workers' rights,
to gain access to more health insurance for the needy and to keep local
jobs from moving overseas.

"As the middle class goes down with the loss of jobs, mortgage foreclosures
go up, tuition goes up and the poverty index expands," Jackson said. "A new
South Carolina must focus on economic common ground."

North Charleston residents lining the sidewalks along Montague Avenue
shouted their support for Jackson as the crowd marched the roughly 1.3
miles to City Hall.

About every quarter of a mile, law enforcement officers -- some from the
Charleston County Sheriff's Office and others with the S.C. Highway Patrol
- -- had cars and motorcycles parked in the median to help protect marchers.

Sheriff's Capt. Dana Valentine said that in order to protect future
security concerns, she could not discuss how many law enforcement personnel
were involved with the march. She said the official estimate for the number
of marchers was about 400. However, Rainbow/Push's estimate was much
higher. Janice Mathis, the coalition's Atlanta bureau chief, said observers
for the group told her the number was well over 1,000.

Many of those who marched Tuesday said they came to protest both the drug
raid in Stratford High School, which resulted in no arrests, as well as the
killing of Asberry Wylder, who was shot after police say he shoplifted meat
and tried to stab an officer who was arresting him.

Holding a sign reading "Convict Criminal Cops," North Charleston resident
Charlene Selby said she has been traumatized since she witnessed Wylder's
shooting outside a Rivers Avenue store.

"I'll never forget it as long as I live," she said. "I'm marching on
account of Mr. Wylder. I didn't even know him, but I am marching."

"It could have been me shot to death," said the Rev. J.T. Wiggins. "That
could have been my son or any black man. A statement has to be made."

Randy Blankenship, who grabbed news headlines after the shooting when
police seized his camera at the scene, printed 50 black T-shirts that read
"Coparazzi." That name, he said, will be a new Web site he is starting for
people anywhere in the world to post messages about their dealings with law
enforcement.

"We won't take this anymore," said Blankenship, who also gave out 50
disposable cameras as a gesture to protest police confiscation of his
camera. "I am not used to being victimized by the people who are supposed
to protect me," he said.

One of those marching was William Wylder, who said the reality of his
brother Asberry's death finally is sinking in, particularly with Christmas
coming next week. He said the support of the marchers was overwhelming.

"I miss him a lot," he said of his brother.