The two days of ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests in downtown Pagosa Springs concluded late in the afternoon on Saturday, June 6, following a ceremony in Town Park, where participants were invited to lie face down, with their hands behind their backs, remembering the final moments of George Floyd, the 46-year-old black man killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit bill on May 25. White police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down in the street, begging for his life and repeatedly saying “I can’t breathe”.
A second and third police officer further restrained Floyd, while a fourth officer prevented bystanders from intervening.
The first day of peaceful protest had attracted a wide demographic mix of Pagosa Springs residents — perhaps 120 people, from young children to senior citizens — while the second day saw a somewhat smaller turnout of mostly teens and young adults. Below is Part Two of our Daily Post video covering the Pagosa protests. You can view Part One of the video here.
Similar peaceful protests have been taking place in dozens of Colorado cities and towns. The first day of protests in Denver, following the viral distribution of a video showing the murder of George Floyd, turned into an ugly confrontation between police and protesters. Numerous building and vehicle windows were broken. Police using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters, and 13 people were arrested.
Protests calling for racial justice have occurred over the past two weeks in numerous other countries, including Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, and the UK.
Clearly, racial discrimination is a global concern. But, are we now seeing a change in the way America views race issues, as we struggle with multiple health, economic. political and social challenges in the summer of 2020?
That seems to be the case. A recent poll conducted by the Washington Post indicates that public opinion around ‘Black Lives Matter’ has changed rather significantly over the past 6 years. When a similar poll was done in 2014, following the killing of unarmed Black men in Ferguson, MO and New York City, only 43% of those polled believed the killings reflected “broader problems in treatment of African Americans by police” — rather than being merely isolated incidents.
A similar question, posed this week, about the killing of George Floyd — “isolated incident” or “broader problems” — found 69% of respondents choosing “broader problems.” The apparent change in attitudes was most pronounced among Independents and Republicans.
The same poll found 74% of those polled — 3 out of 4 people — expressing support for the protest actions that have taken place over the past couple of weeks. Even among people who believed the protests have been “mostly violent”, the support for the protesters was expressed by 53% of all those polled. Among those who felt the protests have been “mostly peaceful”, support was expressed by 91% of respondents.
I had a long phone conversation, following the protest events in downtown Pagosa, with a friend who was concerned about outside agitators creating disturbances in our quiet little town, and — taking a larger perspective — worried about changes to our overall society that might be caused by ‘Black Lives Matter’ and similar movements.
We certainly have cause to worry about changes in our overall society, during these uncertain times, and we can be assured that some of the pending changes will be highly unpopular with this or that interest group… with the very rich, for example, or the very poor… or with the defenders of the Second Amendment, or the defenders of Black lives.
But, when 100 local citizens are willing to join together to publicly campaign for peace and justice — even if for only few hours — can that be a bad thing?