CASPER, Wyo. — Casper Youth for Change spokesperson Rhiannon McLean said on Monday, June 1 that a march in protest of the killing of George Floyd is being planned for Wednesday in Casper.
She said the marhc will begin at 12 pm at David Street Station and that people will march to City Hall. While Casper Youth for Change will participate, McLean says the protest is not specifically their event.
“There is no main organizer,” she said. “It is something that we’re all collectively deciding to do. We want to stand with Minneapolis right now.”
Floyd died after Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, as The Atlantic reports. Chauvin faces third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges, according to the Associated Press.
McLean said that people with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are involved in discussions with the City of Casper about the march to ensure that it remains peaceful. Casper Police Department Public Information Officer Rebekah Ladd said the CPD is aware of the protest and are working to ensure the safety of both protesters and the community at large.
NAACP and Wyoming Equality organized a peaceful protest in front of the Wyoming Capitol on Friday.
“We’ll be marching through the streets of the city that we live in,” McLean said. “At this point, it is just the march [which is planned]. If there are speakers, I think they should be people of color at this time.”
She adds that the march is intended as a sign of solidarity with protesters around the country. McLean said that she would like to see the local police department communicate their commitment to training and practices which ensure the safety of citizens.
“We’re not saying we absolutely hate every police officer in the world,” she added. “We want our community’s police to stand with us.”
Casper Police Chief Keith McPheeters released a statement on Monday in response to Floyd’s killing, saying that the department has held a discussion forum and reviewed video footage of Floyd’s killing.
“We reviewed the heartbreaking video footage of George Floyd and together we are having important conversations regarding race and our role as police officers to help – not hinder – the progress that needs to be made in our country,” McPheeters said.
While McLean said she wants protests in Casper and elsewhere to remain peaceful, she expressed some understanding for why some protests in Minneapolis have turned destructive.
“In Casper, we still have the opportunity to speak calmly and peacefully with our police, whereas other places don’t,” she said.
McLean said she was living in Springfield, Illinois when Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, on Aug. 9, 2014. She said that police reform in Ferguson, Missouri was promised following that shooting, but that “Ferguson never got that reform.”
“We’re seeing what happens when you don’t listen to people,” McLean added.
She added that Floyd’s killing highlights that it is “not just one bad apple” in police departments across the country which is at the heart of such violence.
“We’ve seen this too many times,” McLean said. “When something like this happens, it can break the trust between officer and person, officer and community.”
That’s why she says it is important for Casper police to communicate with members of the public.
“It is important for those officer to say, ‘We hear you,’ and make sure it is not going to happen here,” McLean said.
She said that better training is a first step that needs to happen in police departments across the country to “make sure that these police stations and police departments [understand the] idea of not murdering their citizens.”
McLean said that she isn’t sure how long protest events will last on Wednesday.
“I just want everyone to stay safe and peaceful,” she said.
McLean is also a co-executive director of the Wyoming Association of Activists who will be holding a “Justice for All (Black Lives Matter)” discussion of racial justice and activism via the Zoom online meeting platform beginning at 7 pm Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on Oil City News. Used with permission.
