At the height of Thursday’s protest against police brutality approximately 75 people gathered on the Capitol steps. This marked Salem’s sixth consecutive day of protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Today’s event lacked a formal schedule or plan, but rather the gathering formed organically. People came and went from the Capitol all day, but the largest crowd gathered in the evening, which is consistent with past protests.
All day, protestors stood on the sidewalk along Court Street, in front of the Capitol building. Cars frequently passed honking and with people raising fists in solidarity from open windows. They were met with cheers and raised fists from those gathered.
In between passing cars, protestors chanted “no justice, no peace,” followed by “prosecute the police” or “no racist police.” These were interspersed with chants of “say his name, George Floyd,” “say her name, Breonna Taylor,” “I can’t breathe,” and “mama.” These last two chants are in reference to words spoken by Floyd as Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for 8 ½ minutes, killing him. Floyd’s memorial service had been held earlier that day.
These actions occurred throughout the day, with the first break around 8:30 p.m. for a speech. The speech was given by Melvin Smith, who stood in the middle of Court Street to talk to those gathered. Smith talked about how proud he was of everyone who was there fighting and of the movement as a whole calling it “the most beautiful thing I [he] has ever seen.”
Smith paused briefly to greet the Marion County Clerk, Bill Burgess, as Burgess’ car passed. Then he returned to tell the crowd how he got involved in the fight against police brutality. Smith recalled how a police officer kicked his face when he was 14, paralyzing half of it, and stated that he’s been in this fight ever since.
“No one asked you to come, but look at you. Look at you! [You are] my soldiers and we’re gonna win this war. We’re gonna change America,” Smith told the crowd.
After his speech, protestors returned to cheering and chanting for a little under an hour. Then, around 9:20, protestors gathered near the top of the Capitol steps, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence– the length of time Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck. They all took a knee, bowed their heads and raised a fist in honor of Floyd.
Following this, protestors returned to the edge of Court where they continued to cheer and chant. The number of people slowly dwindled until the 11 p.m. curfew, at which time about 30 protestors remained.
A little after 11, a single patrol car pulled up to the Capitol and two officers got out. They walked up to protestors and began to talk amicably with them. They were soon joined by two more patrol cars. The officers in those patrol cars came over to talk with protestors as well. Like Wednesday, the officers were not in riot gear.
“Peaceful protesting is what America is all about,” one of the officers told a group he was talking to.
After talking for a little while, protestors began leaving and so did the police. Protestors are expected to return to the Capitol tomorrow throughout the day and on Saturday from 12-4:30 for a large planned protest.
