Golf club-carrying protesters to complete walk of Seattle man arrested for ‘walking while black’

The Seattle man arrested in a highly publicized encounter with police for walking with a golf club never finished his planned stroll that day, so protestors with golf clubs will take over Capitol Hill this weekend to finish his walk.

“We walk because when it comes to police misconduct and black men, there are no local issues, just one long and painful history of bad cops who think it’s okay to dole out harsh and sometimes even deadly punishments to black men they deem to have stepped out of line,” says organizer Chad Goller-Sojourner in an invitation to join the rally.

Related: Police apologize for arrest, return elderly veteran’s golf club

The Seattle Police Department has ordered a review of Officer Cynthia Whitlatch’s conduct surrounding her encounter with 69-year-old William Wingate last July, and removed her from patrol.

Whitlatch was caught on police dashboard video aggressively approaching Wingate at an intersection as he prepared to cross the street.

The man was using a golf club as a cane and Whitlach claimed he swung it at her. When he refused to put it down, Whitlach called in another officer and ultimately arrested the elderly veteran who regularly walked the same route.

Last week, Seattle police chief Kathleen O’Toole met with Wingate, apologized for his arrest, and returned his golf club. Charges against him were dropped last year.

Wingate is expected to join the rally Saturday, that gets underway at 2 p.m. at Cal Anderson Park.

“We walk because blackness and criminal behavior are so merged in the American mind, that regardless of who you are, where you came from, or what you’ve accomplished, in the eyes of many, being black and male is sufficient probable cause,” says the rally announcement.

Wingate has filed a claim with the City of Seattle. He’s seeking more than $750,000 in damages.

The claim reads, in part: “Mr. Wingate’s physicians and family members and friend will attest to the emotional distress caused by the racial profiling, arrest, and incarceration of this man, whose only crime was ‘walking in Seattle while black.'”