FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Dozens of people marched through the streets of Fort Lauderdale to demand justice and call out the Broward Sheriff’s Office for deputies’ use of force in arrests captured in viral videos.
“Fed up and fired up, fed up and fired up,” chanted demonstrators over and over as they moved across downtown Fort Lauderdale, Sunday afternoon.
With a banner reading “Justice for Lucca,” the group marched from the African American Research Library and Cultural Center to New Mount Olive Baptist Church, where Clintina Rolle, the mother of 15-year-old Delucca “Lucca” Rolle addressed the crowd with her son by her side.
“I want you all to keep praying for me and praying for my son,” she said.
Rolle was arrested April 18 in the parking lot of a McDonald’s along the 8700 block of North Pine Island Road in Tamarac.
Cellphone video captured BSO Sgt. Greg LaCerra blasting Delucca Rolle with pepper spray before throwing him to the ground in the parking lot of a McDonald’s along the 8700 block of North Pine Island Road in Tamarac.
Moments later, BSO Deputy Christopher Krickovich is seen punching the teen and slamming his head into the pavement.
On hand at Sunday’s march was Benjamin Crump, Rolle’s attorney.
“There seems to be a pattern and practice that exists in the Broward Sheriff’s Office,” he said, “for them using unnecessary excessive force, especially against people of color.”
Students at the scene of Rolle’s arrest said the teen, a student at J.P. Taravella High School, got caught in the chaos while trying to pick up a cellphone.
After he was apprehended, the teen faced charges of resisting arrest, assaulting an officer and trespassing. However, following the release of the viral video, prosecutors dropped all charges against him.
But protesters said that’s not enough, and they are pushing for LaCerra and Krickovich to be dropped from the force. The deputies are currently suspended pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.
“That’s a paid vacation. That is unacceptable; it ain’t enough,” said Marsha Ellison with the Fort Lauderdale/Broward branch of the NAACP. “We want to see them charged. We want to see them fired, and we want to see it sooner rather than later.”
A petition on Change.org, which has demanded Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony to fire the two deputies, has garnered over 61,000 signatures.
The State Attorney’s Office is also looking into the matter.
Family members connected to other high-profile cases involving law enforcement also took part in Sunday’s march and rally to offer support for Clintina and Delucca Rolle.
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