HARPER WOODS, Mi. - One day after violent protests erupted across the country, more than 200 cars gathered in Harper Woods to peacefully protest police brutality.
"We are in a COVID 19 pandemics, we also have had a pandemic since slavery and that's been injustice of African Americans, especially our males with the police officers and their injustice towards them," said President of Grosse Pointe and Harper Woods NAACP, Cynthia Douglas.
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Protesters hold peaceful protest in Harper Woods, ‘This systemic racism needs to be addressed,’ one protester said
FOX 2 News
This comes after a white former Minneapolis police officer is accused of killing George Floyd, an unarmed African American man. In response, the protesters displayed signs and painted messages on their cars, denouncing the violence while driving up and down the streets.
"We know we need to change," said Welcoming Everyone Grosse Pointe President Shannon Byrne. "We cannot keep going in a white supremacist society where we have violence against our black and brown brothers and sister."
"It's really heartwarming to see how the turnout for this because it matters to all of us in order to change anything in this country, the systemic racism, it needs to be addressed from all of us," said Valerie Kindle with the Harper Woods City Council. "It can't just be black and brown people."
And above all else, people here adamantly asked for this protest to remain peacefully so they could share their message.
"Black lives matt, that's why we are here today," Byrne said. "That's our biggest message and we are going to have to keep working for justice, especially us white folks. We can't be silent. Our silence compliance with the violence that's happening in our country."