In Denver: Car caravan joins marchers for eighth day of protests »
Masses of peaceful demonstrators took to Denver’s streets Thursday evening on foot and in vehicles, with marchers supplemented by a miles-long car caravan on this eighth straight day of activism in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
In Denver as elsewhere across the nation, protesters continued to sound the alarm for racial justice and the need for law-enforcement reform following the death of another black man at the hands of police.
Activities kicked off in late afternoon at Civic Center with a “youth education” event that featured young speakers, including 8-year-old Mac Vasquez, addressing the crowd.
“I think people, I just, I don’t know why this is happening,” she said. “Because it’s just how they look. It’s just their skin. Really on the inside, they’re as nice, kind and unique as us.”
Across town around the Short
er Community AME Church, a couple hundred people gathered, gearing up for a parade of protest vehicles. Part of the idea behind the caravan was to allow proper COVID-19 social distancing while still demonstrating — participants safely in their cars instead of marching shoulder to shoulder.
Fatima Thibou, 46, said this was the first time she’s ever been to a protest. She said two weeks ago, she was followed by a car while jogging in her Littleton neighborhood. “Because I’m black in Littleton, I’m being followed?”
The protest vehicles at one point were packed tight along a 2½-mile stretch of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, from Colorado Boulevard to Quebec Street, with many more cars stretched out in line. People could be seen standing on the sides of the street, fists in the air.
“I just want to have a voice,” said Michael Carter, one of the participants. “Mess up some traffic, if that gets the message across.”
Downtown, the demonstrators around the Capitol and in Civic Center headed west on Colfax Avenue to Speer Boulevard, where they stopped traffic and marched up the usually busy thoroughfare, a crowd that stretched blocks.
The protesters gathered on the large field outside the Auraria campus’ Tivoli Student Union for what has become one of the signature moments of these demonstrations: hundreds of people lay face-down on the grass, their arms behind their backs, for nine minutes of silence — symbolizing the approximate length of time a now-former Minneapolis police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck before he died.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser addressed the crowd, telling The Denver Post afterward that the response to Floyd’s death feels different.
“This is extraordinary,” he said. “We dream about getting young people engaged in a cause.”
Thursday evening’s demonstrations, which moved back to the Capitol and Civic Center, continued the calm and peaceful note that’s been struck the past few nights in Denver. The demonstrations late last week and during the weekend and even into Monday night were confrontational, and they saw some crime and vandalism — each night ending in clouds of police tear gas and barrages of pepper balls.
Beginning Tuesday and continuing Wednesday, Denver police stepped back, allowing the protests to continue well past the 9 p.m. emergency curfew that, unless extended, was in its final night Thursday.
On a warm Thursday evening, marchers were even met by Denver police officers distributing cases of bottled water.