Peaceful Black Lives Matter Event Held in Lock Haven

LOCK HAVEN – Some 100 people participated in a Saturday evening Black Lives Matter peaceful protest in Lock Haven’s downtown.

Participants gathered at Triangle Park as cars driven by supporters traveled down W. Main Street, up Bellefonte Avenue, then back down W. Main Street several times. Participants at the park were mostly young, well behaved and mixed ethnically. They lined up on the sidewalk along Bellefonte Avenue and engaged in chants to passing motorists: “2-4-6-8, Stop the Violence, Stop the Hate”, “I Can’t Breathe” and “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.”

Later they walked peacefully down E. Main Street which had been cordoned off to traffic for Friday and Saturday to assist downtown businesses. In the vicinity of the Opera Building they laid down face-first, and stayed that way for 8 minutes, 46 seconds, the amount of time a police officer in Minneapolis had his knee on the neck of George Floyd, the black man who lost his life as a result. They repeated additional chants, including, “Don’t Let Me Die in the Street” and “Mother, Help Me.”

The assemblage then returned to Triangle Park for a brief program. The event lasted better than an hour and was incident free, other than a couple nearby people who yelled obscene-laden directives to the participants to leave. There was a local police presence on the periphery of the protest, but kept a distance.