Protests continued across this state as George Floyd was remembered in Houston. Sandy Hausman reports on two marches through Charlottesville.
For the second day in a row, nearly a thousand people marched through Charlottesville chanting their support for the Black Lives Matter movement and their demand that racist police officers be dismissed.
On Sunday night they marched from the Free Speech Monument downtown to the Rotunda. On Monday at 5 they marched back – this time filling Water Street, carrying hand-made signs that read Silence Equals Violence, Defund Police, Time Is Up and My Skin Is Not a Weapon. It was a loud but peaceful crowd – almost all wearing masks.
Police kept a low profile -- closing intersections to traffic on West Main – assuring the safety of protesters. Young people organized the marches but people of all ages and races joined in.
Community leader Don Gathers told Sunday crowd, “When things go wrong, we show up and we show that this is Charlottesville. It’s just sad that we continue to have to gather this way, that things have not changed.”
Gathers then led the crowd in taking a knee to commemorate the death of George Floyd – deprived of breath by a Minneapolis police officer who’s now behind bars.
Speaking thru a bullhorn, marchers shared their stories of encounters with racist police and urged the city to take down its confederate monuments.
