By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
More than 500 protesters demanded justice for George Floyd as they marched through Bowling Green Sunday evening.
Starting at the Wood County Courthouse, they traveled down Main Street chanting “I can’t breathe” – Floyd’s plea as a Minneapolis police officer held him down with a knee on his neck till Floyd stopped breathing.
As police blocked traffic, the protesters carried signs and yelled “No justice, no peace. No racist police.”
Motorists honked horns and held up fists in support.
Their first stop was in front of the Bowling Green Police Division, where Ky Wilson confronted local law enforcement and elected officials – all white.
“I’ve seen way too many black people die. These streets are built on black people’s backs,” said Wilson, a senior at Bowling Green State University.
Wilson said she talked with three police officers on Sunday. “They may have been lovely people,” she said. “But I can’t trust the system.”
Police Chief Tony Hetrick spoke to the crowd.
“What happened in Minneapolis, we condemn that,” Hetrick said. “We are here to listen to you.”
One voice demanded that Hetrick take a knee, then more shouts joined in, asking him to show respect to Floyd.
So the police chief, Mayor Mike Aspacher, Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn, Ohio State Patrol Commander Angel Burgos, BGPD Major Justin White and BGPD Lt. Dan Mancuso all took a knee in front of the crowd.
“Then stand up for us – everyday,” Wilson said. “That don’t mean shit to me, until you act like it.”
Hetrick said taking a knee was a gesture to show unity with the group. “It was solidarity with them,” he said.
Floyd’s death was “a stain on the profession,” the chief said.
The protesters then moved to the neighboring Wooster Green, where people took turns speaking through a megaphone to the crowd. Centuries of anger, fear and anguish spilled out for more than two hours.
“Racism didn’t die” with the end to slavery, one speaker said. It just keeps changing forms.
“White people, you don’t understand the pain that I see,” said Remi Zellers, who has earned two degrees at BGSU. “I’m sick and tired of saying these names,” of people killed for being black.
Protesters demanded that police be held accountable for using excessive force.
“What happens when there’s no cell phone video?” one person said.
Several who spoke had trouble holding back years of emotion and fatigue from worrying about loved ones.
“You don’t know what it’s like to be afraid of police,” one woman said.
“Our kids are scared,” another said. And parents live in fear, teaching their children to react in ways that won’t get them killed, she said.
That is something people with white privilege can never understand.
“I can’t protect my little sister when she leaves the house,” one woman said. “We don’t get to say, ‘See you later.’ We have to say, ‘Be safe out there.’”
Solomon Miller talked of getting a gray hoodie one year for Christmas, but was fearful of wearing it since he looked like Trayvon Martin in it.
“I want to have kids. I want to grow old,” Miller said. But with every George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, those dreams seem more fragile.
“We can’t let this be normal,” he said. “We can’t let this keep happening. We have to hold these people accountable.”
The protesters defended the violence that is erupting in some cities across the nation. Until black lives are more important than white property, there can be no peace.
“We are at war. It’s black people against the world,” one person said. “A rebellion is not pretty.”
“You all want us to be quiet. What all should we be doing? You all don’t listen to us when we walk down the street. We can chant ‘Black Lives Matter’ all the time,” but nothing changes, a speaker said.
Many spoke of rallying in the past against police violence or racist killings.
“We’ve been here before” but nothing has changed, one woman said.
Some were angry at the black community having to deal with disproportionate deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and police brutality.
“We’re facing two f###### pandemics at the same time,” one speaker said.
Wasylyshyn was challenged by multiple speakers about the lack of punishment in cases of police brutality.
“If all lives matter, what the f### is this,” said one woman who held up a cork bullet she was hit with at a protest the night before in Toledo.
The sheriff stayed in the middle of the rally, taking the brunt of many criticisms about law enforcement violence. He said he had told the protesters he would listen, so he did – and learned.
“I don’t think of people being afraid of us,” he said.
While many of the protesters were white, those who were black made it clear that Sunday’s rally and this moment in the nation aren’t about white people.
“We’re tired of hearing your voices. You all have been talking and talking and talking for centuries,” Wilson said.
“This is not the time to try to make it about you white people,” one speaker said.
“You are important, but do not for a second think you are more important than us,” the white protesters were told. “Until you think my life matters as much as yours, you are not welcome here.”
A white woman in the crowd shouted back, “We’ll never understand – but we stand.”
The black speakers told of a Bowling Green different than the one seen by white residents.
“How many white people walk into a store scared? They don’t know that feeling,” one woman said, talking also about her fear of walking alone at night in Bowling Green.
“This city is known as a sundown town,” where black people should not be out alone after dark.
“I live in this town and feel like I’m an outsider,” another woman said. “I go to the store and everybody stares. I’m tired. I’m sick of it. Stop the staring.”
White people at the rally were told to do more than hold signs and post on Instagram.
“Continue this fight beyond today,” one speaker said.
“Change it. Raise your kids and let them know this isn’t right,” another said. “Fix it. We can’t fix it.”
White people were told that being silent in the face of racism is as bad as racism itself.
“Go home and tell people it’s not OK.”
“Call out your racist grandma who hasn’t changed her language since the 1950s,” a speaker said.
The rally in Wooster Green broke up at 9 p.m., and the protesters retraced their steps back to the courthouse – renewing their chants for justice.
“Everybody was respectful of us,” Hetrick said. “There’s been no violence, no issues.”
“We supported their right to protest,” Aspacher said. “We’re interested in learning from them what we can do to make Bowling Green a place where they can feel welcome. We can always get better.”
