Clea Ibrahim got on her knees, looked the officer in front of her in the eyes and begged him to take a knee, give her a hug or do anything to show her he cared about her. After a few minutes on the ground, as she pleaded with tears in her eyes, the rest of the nearly 800-strong crowd of protesters joined her — all on their knees, begging the police in front of them to join in. The two officers turned around, got in their car and drove away.
“I’m not going to stop until a cop takes a knee or gives me a hug,” Ibrahim, a leader of the growing antiracism movement in the Eugene-Springfield area, said over her megaphone to the surrounding crowd.
Black Lives Matter protesters took to the streets in Springfield on Saturday to protest the local police department not using body-worn cameras. The Springfield City Council will vote on whether to fund body cameras for officers Monday.
Mayor Christine Lundberg issued a statement Saturday in which she came out in support of the funding for these cameras. She said that recently proposed budget reductions within the department due to COVID-19 put future funding for the body-camera program at risk but that community members had voiced their concerns.
“I support our law enforcement professionals in Springfield and agree the cameras are a vital tool that all police departments should employ,” Lundberg said in the statement.
“We don’t want to take down the police department,” Ibrahim said in an interview with the Emerald. “We don’t want to burn it down, we want to work with the police and we want the police to work with us and we want to feel protected and served.”
This march was the first major event in the Springfield area and for its police department, putting the BLM leadership group slightly more on edge as they asked protesters to behave and be good “ambassadors of the movement” in Springfield.
The protest began at the Springfield City Library, where leaders of the group, including Isiah Wagoner and Moses Jackson, said a few words about the Black Lives Matter movement and their demands.
“What we want is the freedom to pursue our own destiny,” Jackson said, after recounting stories of getting pulled over by police for playing his music too loud, or the time his college counselor asked him if he wanted to sign up for a basketball class. “What if I want to study the stars?”
As the protest left the library and made its way up A Street, then turned up Pioneer Parkway E, the crowd of nearly 800 passed by the Springfield Police Department and Municipal Courthouse. Tensions rose as police lined the sidewalks.
Meanwhile, in front of the Lane County Jail in Eugene, another group of protesters gathered. This group, also led by BIPOC, set out not to reform but to dismantle the police. The organizers were critical of what they saw as collaboration with the police, going so far as to call the peaceful marches that had been held all week “parades,” since Eugene police had blocked traffic for them.
To that end, organizers took turns on a megaphone informing protesters of their rights when dealing with cops; how to form small, tight-knit groups of activists to avoid infiltration by law enforcement or white supremacists; and how to get involved with street medics.
“I’m sorry if this is intimidating, and I’m sorry if it’s doing too much,” one organizer said. “But if we don’t have security, and we don’t organize, we won’t get shit done!”
The protest in front of the jail was cut short as rumors came in of armed counter-protesters in Springfield. Despite the difference in tactics between the two anti-racist groups, the jail protesters decided to join the Springfield protest to put themselves between the peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters and the reported counter-protesters.
“Just because we disagree with them doesn’t mean they don’t deserve protection,” an organizer announced. “And they are completely unprepared to deal with the fasc [fascist counter-protesters],” they said.
Back in Springfield, Ibrahim and Jackson approached a pair of officers guarding the door to the courthouse, asking them if they would take a knee — to no acknowledgement from the officers. The crowd took a knee and chanted for them to join, but the officers wouldn’t budge so the crowd moved on.
As the group made its way down the major street, a few crowd members and a leader of the protest noticed a team of about 20 officers outfitted in riot gear, clutching black batons. While they were tucked behind a black wrought iron fence, many of the protesters said they felt threatened, one shouting, “There are kids here.”
Leaders of the movement decided to take another knee, asking those in the crowd to not antagonize and instead invite the riot police to join them in taking a knee. Instead, the helmet-clad officers marched inside the building to the cheers of the crowd.
Shortly after, protesters stopped a police car and asked the officers inside to come out and join them. Jackson asked them, “Are you too scared to take a knee?” But they stayed in their car.
The protesters made their way down Pioneer Parkway with far less tension and less police interaction. They stopped at the intersection of Centennial Boulevard and Pioneer Parkway as Wagoner shouted that they were going to “take” the intersection. “These are our streets,” he shouted.
He asked that all protesters get on their knees and put their hands behind their head, simulating an arrest. “Who’s car is this? Hands behind your head,” BLM leaders ran around, shouting at the majority-white group of protesters. Wagoner later apologized to the group after hearing that some of the younger protesters felt scared in the moment but added that “this is what Black kids feel every day.”
Shortly after, Ibrahim encountered the two officers and pleaded with them to kneel with her in support of BLM. The group joined, and then they moved on when police ignored their request.
As the SPD blocked off the roads, the group turned onto Rainbow Street, calling for people in the neighborhood to join them. Just after turning onto D Street from Rainbow to head back to where they started, a double rainbow sat just ahead of the crowd, Wagoner told the crowd it must be a clear message in support from a higher power.
“We want both Eugene and Springfield to be able to be on the same page with peace, human rights and unity,” Ibrahim said.
