06/24/2020
Tuesday, June 2nd, saw more demonstrations. The City of Refuge church, located at the corner of Jefferson and Gridley, organized a march from the church to the McLean County Law & Justice Center. BPD was notified prior to the demonstration and blocked off traffic. The organizers even altered the route at one point to accommodate BPD wishes of minimizing the march’s disruption of commerce.
Led by Pastor Willie Bennett, the event saw several speeches by black people, both young & old. The energy in the crowd was no less passionate then the previous days, but it was less raw and unconscious. It had the trimmings of an organized religious service, with important propositions punctuated with audience pronouncements of support.
“I want to use this opportunity to make some things clear. Just so no one gets the wrong message, we are not against the police. We are against racist police,” Pastor Willie said, followed by a chorus of “Amens!” from the audience. “We are not against white people: white people are marching with us and we thank you! But we are against white supremacy. We are against white privilege. We aren’t against privilege; we aren’t against you having something. We are against only you having privilege.
“We chanted “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” That slogan represents: if our hands are up, don’t kill us. But we’re not begging anymore! Stop killing us!” He mentioned several innocent victims including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, all murdered when they were absolutely no threat to anyone. “Can we not tell black people ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ anymore and just say ‘Don’t Shoot!’
“We protest to let everyone know that there will always be unrest, there will always be us screaming & marching through the streets, there will be us pulling our money back from your businesses, there will be our vote that votes you out of office, as long as Black people are getting killed.”
The protest then marched back to City of Refuge where the event ended. A contingent of activists took up position on Washington Street in front of the McLean County History Museum for the next several hours.
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