5- MILE MARCH
Charles, who preferred not to give his last name, raises his fist at the front of a march against police brutality and in support of Black lives that went from Aurora to Denver on Sunday. Demonstrators chanted about seeking justice for Elijah McClain, who died one year ago on Aug. 30, 2019.
Several hundred protesters marched 5 miles from Aurora to Denver on East Colfax Avenue on Sunday in a demonstration against police brutality and in support of Black lives.
The march started at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in Aurora and ended at a monument for the civil rights icon in Denver’s City Park. The marchers chanted about seeking justice for Elijah McClain, who died one year ago on Aug. 30, 2019, days after Aurora police violently stopped him as he walked home from a store and paramedics used a strong sedative on the 23- year- old Black man.
Protester Tanesha Samuels said she hoped Sunday’s march would put pressure on authorities to arrest and charge the police officers who stopped McClain.
“That’s all I want,” she said. “It’s been a year.”
She added that she was not afraid for her safety despite the growing violence at protests across the nation.
“We do so peacefully,” she said of the march. “And if people start tearing things up, we leave.”
As the crowd marched along East Colfax Avenue, they shouted profanities and referred to police as “pigs,” but the march did not devolve into violence or vandalism. The large group of protesters took over both sides of the thoroughfare for about two hours Sunday afternoon. Denver police blocked roads around the march but did not engage directly with the protesters.
Abigail Strickland, 17, came to the march with her father, Gregory Strickland, and the two planned to walk the entire 5 miles.
“We come from a place of privilege, and you realize that after a while,” said Gregory Strickland, who is white, adding he felt he could no longer stand by without participating.
The protest came one week after another Black man was shot by police in Wisconsin. Jacob Blake was shot seven times by Kenosha police in Wisconsin last Sunday, leaving him paralyzed. Protests around the country have erupted in the aftermath of the shooting, which was caught on video.
Strickland and his daughter were both at a July 25 march in Aurora where a protester fired shots at a truck that drove through the crowd, shooting two fellow protesters, but that did not stop them from coming back out, he said. The demonstration was organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Both Abigail and Gregory Strickland believe the Black Lives Matter protests will continue.
“Just when you think it is over, another ugly incident happens, another reason,” Gregory Strickland said.