During a meeting that began and ended in prayer and included the anguished cries of mothers mourning the deaths of their sons, the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP demanded answers to a recent rash of police shootings of young, unarmed black men.

The lack of response to the shootings by black elected officials and the absence of local political leaders at the meeting also became a major focus.

Miami-Dade NAACP President Bishop Victor T. Curry began the meeting on the evening of Nov. 19 by dispelling accusations that he is against the police.

“I’m against police brutality and I believe 99 percent of police officers in their right minds are against police brutality,” he told the crowd of more than 50 people at the New Birth Enterprise Building at 8400 N.E. 2nd Ave. in Miami.

According to Curry, the purpose of the meeting was to determine, “What should our response be as a community?”

Curry questioned whether other communities in Miami-Dade are treated similarly by the police.

“I can guarantee you this…if in the last two months, four unarmed…men from Aventura were shot and killed by African-American police officers, don’t you think the citizens, the residents of Aventura would be meeting like this?” he said.

Michael Knight and Frisco Blackwood, both 21, were killed on Nov. 12 in Little Haiti after police stopped them for running a red light. Details of the events that led to the shootings are in dispute.

A Miami-Dade police officer shot and killed 19-year-old unarmed Haitian immigrant Gracia Beaugris on Oct. 26 after what police said was an altercation, according to published news reports.

Curry, the popular pastor of the New Birth Baptist Church also took issue with the absence of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez from the meeting.

Curry insisted that the mayor, County Manager George Burgess and Police Chief Robert Parker would have attended meetings in other communities “to hear the concerns of the people.”

He added that their absences represent “just utter disrespect” for the black community.

An emailed request for comment sent to the mayor was not immediately answered.

But, Parker said, “Even had I understood that Bishop Curry's message clearly stated that the request for my or MDPD presence at the NAACP meeting, I would still have declined the request. I do have the very highest regard and respect for Bishop Curry and New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, as well as the NAACP, of which I am a member.”

Parker went on to explain, “I have embarked on a policy of attending the forum, which is set up by the County's Community Relations Board (CRB). This will be a single community forum or others as determined appropriate by the CRB and as dictated by circumstances.”

A message left for Miami-Dade County Community Relations Board Director Larry Capp was not immediately returned.

Community Activist Max Rameau took issue with the silence of Miami-Dade’s black politicians regarding the shootings.

“We haven’t heard one peep from a black elected official about four deaths at the hands of police in their community,” he said at the meeting.

The police allege that the Cadillac SUV driven by Knight surged forward in an attempt to hit the officers. Rameau said the vehicle surged forward after the driver had been shot.

When contacted about his absence at the NAACP meeting and the recent police shootings, District 9 Miami-Dade Commissioner

The commissioner added that, because the cases are under investigation, “we have to wait and see what the facts are.”

Regarding his absence at the NAACP meeting, the commissioner said he was “not aware of the meeting.”

Calls and email requests for comments to District 2 Miami-Dade Commissioner Dorrin Rolle and District 3 Commissioner Audrey Edmonson were not immediately returned.

According to the office of District 1 Commissioner Barbara Jordan, the commissioner has been out of town since Nov. 2 and is not scheduled to return until Nov. 29.

Jordan, according to the website of the Children’s Trust, spearheaded an effort to fund a violence prevention initiative that resulted in the 2006 allocation of $9 million for a three-year period after a rash of black-on-black crime in inner city communities.

The trust was created in 2002 by a voter referendum to fund programs that focus on improving the lives of children in Miami-Dade County.

The absence of key community leaders notwithstanding, Curry said at the meeting, “We will leave here with a plan of action, a plan to deal with what’s going on in our community.”

Curry warned the audience that apathy and nonchalance in the black community would imply that the deaths are not important.

“We can’t expect other people to feel the same way about our community the way we feel about our community,” he said.

In addition to demanding modifications to how the police respond to black communities, Curry admonished the audience “to be careful of the messages we send to the police department.”

Curry said the black community has a tendency to solicit the assistance of the police department to get rid of crime and then complain about the results.

“We’re the only ones who put up with this and the only ones who call the police on ourselves to this degree and they end up killing our sons, killing our brothers, killing our nephews,” he said.

The proliferation of weapons on the streets coupled with disrespect for the lives of young black men has produced a “shoot now and ask questions later” mentality among police officers, according to Curry.

Attorney Larry Handfield, who represents the family of Beaugris, questioned the use of deadly force by the police “when you have a situation where a kid is doing laundry [around] the corner from his house, not engaged in a criminal episode. Our police department has been conditioned…to think that the black community is a jungle.”

Handfield continued, “The only way we could bring about change is to change the mindset that they must value our community the same way they value Coral Gables, Aventura and South Beach.’’

Of the Beaugris shooting, Handfield added, “This is a situation where the kids were not doing anything illegal. This community is fed up with innocent kids’ lives being taken in a matter of seconds.’’

Cheryl Kerr, mother of Michael Knight, said “He was just turning 21 on Nov. 9 and three days later he’s gone.” Overcome by emotion, Kerr could not continue speaking.

Tamika Cure was a passenger in the vehicle with Knight and Blackwood. Cure tearfully addressed the audience, stating that she “thinks about [the shooting] every night.”

Walking on crutches due to a gunshot wound to the thigh that she suffered during the fatal shooting of Knight, she added, “I had to see them die.”

Frisco Blackwood’s mother, Maizelyn Reid, lamented the lack of any contact from the police department to either inform her of or express condolences for her son’s death.

“The police have not come to me; they haven’t said a word to me. They said they run the stop sign. If he was wrong, get him out and if you have to arrest him, arrest him. You don’t kill him,” she said.

A rally to protest the shootings will be held at 4 pm. on Saturday, Nov. 24, at the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Intracoastal Station at 15665 Biscayne Boulevard, Aventura.