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GREENSBORO - Groups representing a variety of causes united under the banner of unity, peace and justice for a march and rally on Saturday.

About 250 people gathered at St. Philip AME Zion Church and marched up Elm Street to the Phill G. McDonald Plaza downtown.

The Greensboro Pulpit Forum sponsored the march and rally, along with the Beloved Community Center, the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation, the N.C. A&T Black History Club and Cop Watch.

A dozen members of the Almighty Latin Kings and Queens Nation , wearing black or gold T-shirts and bandannas, participated.

When Jorge Cornell , the leader of local Latin Kings, took the stage to speak, he asked everyone in the crowd who had lost a family member to police brutality to join him.

"That's the only way I can do this speech," Cornell said.

Cornell repeated his request to African Americans and Latinos to work together to fight racism.

"The black and the brown, that's who's enduring this," Cornell said. "We have to stand together. We can't let the government divide us any more."

Cornell and three other men were charged with felonies on Nov. 1 in connection with what police have called the abduction of a 15-year-old girl. Cornell has said police began unfairly targeting him after he publicly called for peace among gangs in June.

Nelson Johnson , director of the Beloved Community Center , has supported Cornell and spoke out strongly against the Greensboro Police Department's gang squad at the rally Saturday.

"The gang squad's actions have created a dangerous situation," Nelson said. "I'm persuaded that the gang squad's actions are calculated to get a reaction ... that will lead to the killing of King J (Cornell)."

Later Saturday, police Sgt. R.L. Sizemore denied the gang squad was trying to provoke the Latin Kings.

"Our job is to investigate crime, and when these guys get involved with crime, we investigate them," he said.

"We have laws and policies and procedures, the same as the rest of the department," Sizemore said. "All the times we've made an arrest, we've gone through a magistrate and showed probable cause."

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com