Around 200 People Gather For Peaceful Protest in Jasper Saturday

BY: DAVID SHEPHERD, NEWS DIRECTOR

JASPER -- Around 200 people gathered at the Dubois County Courthouse Saturday morning to protest the killing of an unarmed black man by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

It was hosted by One Dubois County.  Group leaders said the demonstrations were to "protest the violence and injustice perpetrated on people of color every day throughout this country."  They  "[stood] in solidarity with the voices calling for justice and an end to the racist systems and policies that uphold this violence."

One Holland woman told me she is at a higher risk for COVID-19 but this was too important to stay home.

"What we're seeing now, in such a divided nation, it seems like we made it possible to be cruel to others with all of the divisiveness and I'm tired of it," she tells our David Shepherd at Saturday's demonstration.

Shepherd met one man who traveled from Loogootee to be at Saturday’s demonstrations.

"It's something we've been fighting for so long and, we know there are things happening in this world that we're not comfortable with," the Loogootee man said.  "None of us here today know how to fix it other than be a voice for those who, one, aren't here to make the voice, but, also, those of us in the community that look like us (white) and maybe aren't being affected to see that it's affecting folks that look like us too.  Those of us that aren't being affected directly need to stand up and be a voice, an advocate, for those who are."

The protests in Jasper remained peaceful.  See a replay of David's live report below.