Religious and community leaders in Bremerton staged a rally Sunday to bring attention to incidents of police violence across America.

And, while most who attended agreed that black youth in Bremerton have a good relationship with the city’s police officers, there were warnings about how to act.

Cards were handed out telling young people that when they are stopped by police they need to not run, not argue, and keep their hands out of their pockets and visible to law enforcement officials.

“This is simple, polite stuff that could keep situations from becoming deadly,” said Richmond Johnson, pastor of the Mount Zion Missionary Church in Bremerton, one of the churches that sponsored the event.

More than 100 people participated in the rally which began at the Ebenezer African Methodist Church on Park Avenue. The group then walked to the Opal Robertson Teen Center, about two blocks away. At the center, several people spoke and urged young people — especially the black men and boys in the crowd — to be careful when interacting with police.

The march was in response to incidents in New York City, Cleveland and Ferguson, Missouri, where unarmed black males were killed by police officers. The deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York and Tamir Rice in Cleveland have sparked marches, protests and some rioting across the nation. Ultimately, many are searching for answers to what has been viewed by some as police violence and racial injustice.

Former Bremerton school board member Vicki Collins attended the rally and said, that while she thinks Bremerton doesn’t have the kinds of problems seen elsewhere, she still wants young people to be educated about what can happen.

“We have to keep our young people safe,” she said. “We need them to know it is necessary to cooperate with law enforcement. They need to be educated on what to do when they are stopped by place.”

Collins complimented Bremerton Police Chief Steve Stachan who sat down with black community leaders and had “great conversations.”

“We are all trying to get out in front of this,” she said. “We are trying to be proactive rather than reactive.”

Having a 22-year-old African American son, Collins said she began teaching him at an early age about racism.

“Simply by being an African American in America there’s an education that needs to take place,” she said. “My husband and I armed him with information, not raised him with fear.”

She said she could recall only one incident of racism in all her son’s years in the Bremerton Public Schools and she said the principal death with it directly and right away.

“But we are not in a post-racial society,” she said. “We have to teach our children how to live and survive. And we have to teach them how to respect authority because the police have a job to do.”

She said, in turn, police have a responsibility for accountability and only by communicating and working together will answers be reached.

Former Bremerton pastor Sam Rachel who participated in the march said it bothered him that no city officials or law enforcement officials took part.

“It just shows a lack of respect for what we’re doing,” Rachel said. “They should care to know what we’re feeling.”

Calls to both the Kitsap County Sheriff’s office and the Bremerton Police Department for comment were not returned by press time.