JOLIET, IL — Hundreds of cars and trucks were honking their horns at the busy intersection of Caton Farm Road and Route 59 Friday afternoon showing their support for George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The 46-year-old Floyd died Monday after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was seen on video with his knee on Floyd’s neck during an arrest. On Friday, authorities in Minnesota charged Chauvin with third-degree murder and manslaughter in Hennepin County.
Joliet’s Black Lives Matter rally began at 2 p.m. and was scheduled to go until 4:30 p.m. By 3 p.m., the rally had attracted nearly 100 people, and one of the event coordinators told Joliet Patch he was thrilled that most of the attendees were white.
One group at the rally told Patch they were all students who attended Plainfield’s high schools. One teenage girl said they were attending on behalf of the Illinois High School Democrats.
Organizers of Friday’s Black Lives Matter rally at one of Joliet’s busiest intersections emphasized on social media that the rally was designed to be non-violent.
And it was.
Most of the attendees brought homemade signs to hold up in front of passing cars and semi-trailers that read, “STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE,” “JUSTICE for George, Breonna and Ahmaud,” “Black Lives Matter,” ‘I CAN’T BREATHE” and “IF YOU’RE NOT ANGRY YOU’RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION.”
Jermaine Horton, owner of and photographer for the Art of Confidence Project, told Patch he drove to Joliet from Naperville for Friday’s rally.
Horton told Patch it was great to see such a large turnout. “Our black lives matter,” Horton said. “You can’t continue that hurt anymore. We have been protesting peacefully for years now. There’s more white people than black people (here), and that shows love does exist. It’s here.”
Horton said he had a message for larger-sized police departments such as the Joliet Police Department and Naperville Police Department.
“They have to commit to the community, and they have to hold each other accountable,” Horton told Joliet Patch’s editor.
When large police departments don’t hold fellow officers accountable, he said, “then you have chaos and division where people in the ranks can be tyrants.”
More Patch coverage on George Floyd case:
