Protesters remind Clarion racial justice movement continues

By RODNEY L. SHERMAN
Clarion News editor

Two groups of people gathered at opposite ends of Main Street Tuesday one group of about six people intent of keeping the “Black Lives Matter” message in the forefront and the other group of about six people at Clarion County Veterans Park across from the courthouse intent on protecting the park’s monuments.

It appeared the two groups would not meet during the sometimes rainy afternoon hours.

In the parking of Koyia Express restaurant, several people came and went as they represented a “Protest for Social Justice.”

Clarion resident Roger Laugand said the people attending the protest/rally planned on walking up Main Street to Fifth Avenue, crossing the street and walking back down to the Koyia parking lot.

With the event scheduled to run between 1 and 9 p.m., Laugand said the processions would take place at various intervals with small numbers of walkers carrying signs and distributing information to anyone who asked.

The participants were wearing face masks.

“It’s not traditional protest,” said Laugand. “We don’t have a name, we’re just a group of people promoting social justice.”

The participants were working with and enjoying the support of several downtown businesses.

Laugand said downtown businesses allowed the group to gather on their properties and others agreed to provide cold bottled water on what was forecast to be a hot and humid day.

Rain, however, began to fall about an hour before the scheduled start of the protest.

Laugand and fellow participant Brendon Henshawe, a Clarion University student from McKeesport, said the rain might have dampened turn out, but both men said the extended hours of the event would allow more people to attend and participate throughout the day.

Laugand said participants planned to visit and patronize downtown businesses to show support for those small shops and restaurants suffering economic setbacks due to the COVID-19 emergency.

“We would like to build a partnership with those businesses,” said Laugand.

At the park

Organizers of the protest/rally never announced the event would take place at Clarion County Veterans Park but social media posts indicated the group would gather there.

As of mid-afternoon, none of the protest participants had visited the park.

A group of people had gathered there beginning around 12:30 p.m.

One of those people, Corey Botelho of New Bethlehem, appealed via Facebook for anyone interested in doing so to join him at the park “to stand guard at the monuments.”

“Let me make one thing perfectly clear,” Botelho said. “I absolutely agree with their right to protest, I have no issue with that whatsoever.

“But when words become actions, I might have an issue with that.”

Botelho, who was armed with an in-view sidearm, said if he encountered anyone vandalizing a monument in the park he planned to call police.

There was a noticeable police presence in the downtown area around the start of the protest and Clarion Borough Police Chief William H. Peck IV spoke briefly with Botelho and the other members of the group.

Peck said organizers of the protest/rally did approach the borough for a special event permit, however that request was denied because the request was not submitted in time to be considered by borough council.

No requests for use of the county park were made prior to the protest or the gathering of the other group.

Also at the park were several county maintenance employees who were working to clean up after a morning tree-trimming session.

The tree-trimming was planned before the protest was announced.

Both groups of people interacted and spoke with the CLARION NEWS in a friendly and cordial manner and neither group offered any negative comments about the other.