Portsmouth NAACP Hosts Political Forum

PORTSMOUTH
The Portsmouth Branch NAACP held its annual Membership Breakfast and Political Forum on Saturday, Aug. 12 at Rogers Brown Restaurant before a packed crowd. Minister Michael Goodman, Chairman of Religious Affairs, served as the morning M.C.

The event allowed candidates running in November for various state and local offices an opportunity to introduce themselves and their platforms.

Representatives of two families who have had family members to die under questionable circumstances involving law enforcement activities were invited to announce a new initiative titled “Families United For Justice.” The new justice advocacy initiative will highlight cases involving civilian-police custody cases that run deadly.

In attendance were family members of William Chapman and Jamychael Mitchell. Mitchell was a 24-year-old mentally ill man who was arrested and jailed in 2015 for stealing $5 in snacks and died mysteriously four months later in the Hampton Roads Regional Jail.

Chapman was 18-years-old in 2015 when he was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart by a Portsmouth police officer.

James Boyd is the president of the Portsmouth Branch NAACP.