MUSKEGON — The Black Lives Matter Protests started around 2:00 Sunday afternoon at the, with a couple hundred people converging on the Muskegon County Courthouse.
The Muskegon County Sheriff’s Office and other officers on hand to make sure everyone stayed safe, but also to let everyone know that they support them.
One protester out today said, “This is nothing recent, this is nothing new, and people are finally getting fed up with it.”
He’s referring to being fed up with police brutality and being outraged over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis this week.
Another protester said, “There’s too many people who have not been spoken for, and we have to speak for that.” '
This demonstration remained peaceful and one protester tells FOX 17 she was glad to see people of all races embracing each other and that the sheriff’s office was out there supporting them.
“I think that they are amazing I think they are supportive and they have been nothing but amazing since we’ve gotten here,” she said.
That’s exactly what Muskegon County Sheriff, Michael Poulin said they are there to do.
“The things that people are out here for today, for what happened in Minnesota, they are spot on and we need to support. We understand that that was bad, we understand that that’s not right, and that we are not going to stand for it either,” he said.
Sheriff Poulin added that he expects things to remain peaceful into the night.
He said, “We need a positive message to get across and any additional violence and malicious destruction of property, that doesn’t help anybody and it’s not going to help our community.”
The protesters agree, after demonstrations in Grand Rapids erupted into hours of violence Saturday into Sunday.
One protester said, “I hate that it happened, I really do because, what did that solve other than people are having to rebuild their home they are businesses?”
They said that will only take away from their message, which is one they so badly want heard.
The sheriff’s office said they would be keeping a close eye on groups and gatherings that get out of hand throughout the night and will have extra patrols out.
