Protesters calling for racial justice hold second Columbus protest in two days
For a second day area residents rallied in Columbus to protest the death of George Floyd, the black man killed May 25 by a white Minneapolis police officer.
About 50 demonstrators gathered Monday at the Walmart on Victory Drive, one day after around 200 people chanting “I can’t breathe” and “Black Lives Matter” marched through downtown Columbus, where some later were arrested for reportedly blocking traffic.
The Monday protest was to begin at 4 p.m., but only a few people showed up that early, among them Bradley Legion, 25, who said he felt demonstrators needed concrete demands to give political leaders, and not just outpourings of emotion.
“People have been out here making our voices heard, but there haven’t been clear-cut demands,” he said. Among the demands he’d like to see are that police body cameras be on whenever officers are in contact with the public, and that officers involved in more than two incidents of police brutality be terminated.
He’d also like a city commission to compile a code of conduct for all law enforcement in Columbus, he said. “If they don’t follow these guidelines, there will be some immediate reprimands,” he said.
Only a few protesters mingled in the Walmart parking lot Monday before about a dozen moved to the sidewalk along Victory Drive to hold signs and wave at passing motorists. By around 6 p.m., nearly 50 were there.
Among the later arrivals was Jon Bardney, 41, who said he felt he needed to come out and demonstrate, instead of brooding at home. “I mean, I’ve just been seeing the injustice on TV, on social media, all over the internet, and I feel helpless. There’s nothing I can do, and I’m tired of getting angry and just dealing with it,” he said.
Gadget Jackson, 31, also arrived later Monday. He was among those arrested downtown after Sunday’s protest.
He said those charged were only crossing Veterans Parkway at 13thStreet, not trying to block traffic, when officers moved in and detained them.
“The arrests were kind of aggressive, a lot of them were,” he said. Some were detained just for not moving fast enough, he said. “Older women were being arrested out there, for them not being able to move as fast as some of those younger, that was moving away.”
He said he was charged with failure to disperse, and had to pay $367 to get out of the Muscogee County Jail, where he was released about 11 p.m., eight hours after his arrest.
The Sunday demonstration organized by a group called “No Justice, No Peace” made Columbus one of the dozens of U.S. cities where protests have cropped up in recent days.
That group gathered outside the RiverCenter parking garage shortly after noon and dispersed around 3 p.m. The protesters marched down one side of Broadway, turned on 12th Street and marched back, shouting and waving to bystanders.
The chief organizer, Skylar McMeans, 21, said the group came together on Facebook to protest police brutality and the “injustice of the system.”
Afterward, some participants regrouped and marched from Broadway up 13th Street to Veterans Parkway, blocking traffic, authorities said.
More than 20 people were arrested, Boren said Sunday evening. Their hearings in Columbus Recorder’s Court were set for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 7:25 PM.