Late yesterday afternoon, as the Cleveland-based Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) convening wound down, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority police handcuffed a 14-year-old black boy and put him in a cruiser. Police officials later said that officers removed the child from a bus because they believed he was intoxicated. M4BL participants, who were standing at the scene on Euclid Avenue near East 24th Street, report seeing the un-named boy with a Snapple. 

The exact chain of events is unclear, but according to bystander video and social media posts, protestors restricted police movement until the minor was released and his mother arrived to pick him up. Here’s video.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Byron Hurt captured some of the action, including protestors bouncing and chanting "I believe that we will win!" 

 

At about 1:06 of this Colorlines compilation of Instagram posts from the standoff, police officers pepper-spray participants who scramble, screaming.

 

At about :26 of another Hurt video below, protestors begin chanting the chorus of Kendrick Lamar’s "Alright." Participants have said that it was the convening’s unofficial theme song.