About 100 people marched through Westminster Sunday afternoon in a small Black Lives Matter demonstration that was met by a handful of counter-protesters who drove by the group in pickup trucks and muscle cars, honking their horns, flipping their middle fingers and shouting phrases such as “Loser” and “America.”
The Black Lives Matter protesters reacted by chanting about how President Donald Trump should be voted out of office and by attempting to block the view of the passing vehicles with umbrellas or signs. They also returned the middle fingers.
The counter-protesters seemed to be outnumbered, with the same half-dozen or so vehicles buzzing past the larger group of Black Lives Matter demonstrators every few minutes, driving laps around the pedestrian protesters.
The Black Lives Matter group started its march around 12:30 p.m. at the intersection of West 144th Avenue and Orchard Parkway before walking to McKay Lake and holding speeches. Around 2 p.m., instead of walking back to the starting point, organizers decided to ferry marchers back to the start in vehicles, in part because of the tension between the protesters and counter-protesters.
— Shelly Bradbury (@ShellyBradbury) September 13, 2020
The march, organized by Caravan for Justice and students in Adams County, was billed as youth-led. Children and teenagers walked at the front of the group and gave several of the speeches.
Fin Joyce, 16, said he attended because he wants justice for people such as Elijah McClain, a Black man who died after he was violently stopped by Aurora police in 2019.
“There is strength in numbers and it shows — with all of our physical bodies here in this space — that this is what we want as citizens, for our fellow people to be safe,” he said as the crowd chanted in the hot sun.
“I want justice for anyone who has died due to racism and the racist system in this country.”
