Every Wednesday since 2013, Tawanda Jones has led a vigil to honor her brother Tyrone West’s life and call for justice for his death. West died on July 18 of that year after he was apprehended by Baltimore City police officers, who claimed he was driving too slowly.
The vigils are called West Wednesdays. Sometimes, they are online. Other times, they are held in various parts of the city. Their focus is on justice and accountability—not just for West, but for all victims of police violence.
Jones said that her fight is motivated by love for her brother and for Baltimore.
“The passion has always come from a place of love. That’s my big brother. I love him past death,” she said. “I will never stop, I don’t care how many years. And then the love that I have for my brother extended to my community and to all the victims of police brutality and murder.”
On Wednesday, March 13, West Wednesday organizers held their 555th gathering. The group met at City Hall and then marched through the streets of Baltimore, with Jones leading the way.
Jones said this gathering placed a special emphasis on unity with other organizations working in Baltimore City. It was organized in collaboration with almost 30 other local groups, including the Coalition of Concerned Mothers, Organizing Black, and the Baltimore Peace Movement.
“So much is happening in our city and we need to pull together different coalitions, different races, different backgrounds,” Jones told Baltimore Beat the following Monday. “We felt as though it was very important to actually get together with not just our coalition, but everybody that’s doing something in the community.”
Jones connected her brother’s death, which started with a traffic stop, with the Baltimore Police Department’s recent increased focus on traffic stops.
“They are pretty much trying to bring back stop-and-frisk, the zero-tolerance [policing], without saying it,” she said. (Lisa Snowden)
