Hundreds of local demonstrators protest police brutality

By Lucy Perry
Indiana Central News

Hundreds of protesters made their voices heard throughout the day Saturday in Terre Haute, just as  numerous other demonstrations were happening in other cities across the nation.

Those demonstrations continued into the night, at times with tensions mounting.

It's a diverse group of participants -- blacks and whites, old and young, men and women-- marching together. They carried signs with short, yet powerful messages scrawled boldly across the front for everyone to read:  "Black Lives Matter," Justice for George Floyd," "No Justice, No Peace" and "Abolish the Police."

The large crowd chanted "I can't breathe" and even performed a short skit in front of the Vigo County Courthouse -- depicting the act of a knee to the neck, which proved fatal to one black man in Minnesota earlier in the week.

They  yelled out,"Hands up, don't shoot" and "F--- the police" as they passed police cars and officers standing along the way.

George Floyd, the inspiration for this movement,  was apprehended by police during a theft investigation Monday. As he was detained and handcuffed on street in Minneapolis, a white city officer, Derek Chauvin, was captured in a bystander's video, showing him kneeling on the man's neck ---as Floyd was overheard by witnessed saying he could not breathe, just before he died.

Chauvin and three other officers were subsequently fired. Chauvin has since been arrested for murder.

Meanwhile, the country has been trying to make sense of the brutal act. Public outrage continues.

Many today said changes are urgently needed. 

Oliver Nue, of Terre Haute. held up a large sign, as he quietly stood in front of the Terre Haute Police Department  on Wabash Avenue.

"Stop the f---ing bloodshed,"was written across the poster board. Nue was not wearing a shirt.  He had fake blood smeared across his arms and abdomen. Later, the protesters joined him at the location, where they knelt and offered a prayer.

Protests in Minnesota and other states have become quite violent, with reports of fires and destruction of property.

At the time of this report, 1:15 a.m. -- large groups of protesters continue to march through  Terre Haute,  along  S. Third Street, according to scanner traffic.