Activists March Through Downtown Denver Demanding DA's To Drop Charges
DENVER (CBS4) - The theme of the largest march in Denver on Saturday was "drop the charges." But then suddenly the Party for Socialism and Liberation, protest organizers, learned there was still another case they felt they wanted dropped.
An armed security marshal with a Black women's march had been taken into custody earlier in the day while reportedly escorting a woman to her car.
Tyra Treat was there.
"Because he was a Black man walking, protecting a Black woman. They decide they are just going to stop and arrest him," she told CBS4's Rick Sallinger
So the protesters made a detour to the downtown detention center to demand the man's release. On the other side of the fence, police prepared for the possibility of trouble.
Then the detained man, Shawn McWilliams, appeared. He had been released from the jail after being cited for a weapons violation.
"Here it is. I am trying to show protection for my community. DPD don't want me to show protection for my community. So they were actually saying I was carrying illegal. I was carrying legally," he said.
The "drop the charges" rally was meant to support demonstrators arrested in two other counties last week accused of inciting a riot among other counts. One woman Whiney Hanna Lucero told the crowd she spent eight days behind bars.
"These charges that they have filed. They are excessive obviously," she said.
For the Black Lives Matters supporters, it has been a week filled with a lot of anger from Louisville, Kentucky, where no police officers were indicted in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor.
Denver police say a mural of George Floyd at the Colorado State Capitol building was damaged. Half of the mural was removed. The words "Breonna Taylor" were spray painted behind the mural.
Colorado State Patrol will likely call someone to repair the memorial on Monday.
