Protests fill the streets of downtown Ashland

People marched in the name of George Floyd, a man who died while in the custody of Minneapolis Police.

Newswatch 12's josh shelton was there most of the day sharing with us now how the day progressed.

It started in lithia park in downtown ashland this morning, just a few minutes before 11.

There, people stood with signs, wearing masks and doing their best to stay six feet apart.

Soon the park filledwith people and calls for justice.

It included 9 minutes of people lying on the ground saying "i can't breathe"... the same way george floyd did just six days ago nat of crowd: "i can't breathe!

I can't breathe!

I can't breathe!"

Among them, ashland's chief of police, tighe o'meara.

(take tighe key) tighe o'meara says, "only through collaboration, partnership, relationship building are we going to progress this and the ashland police department wants to be apart of that with the entire community."

He marched with the group as they went from lithia park to the bandshell.

Nat of marching there, people took turns, speaking the crowd which swelled to a size of more than 250 people.

Speaker: to stand in solidarity with the people that are threatened.

Who are afraid for their lives.

This is good, it is not enough.

(take josh key) josh shelton says, "after protestors spoke at the bandshell, they mobilized once more, this time to the streets of downtown ashland."

People marched down main street and eventually circled back to the plaza, where another group had gathered... and they joined forces.

Nats ashland police's only involvement was blocking streets to keep cars away from the protesters as they made their way around downtown ashland.

Afterwards, people gathered at the plaza as people took turns speaking.

Person speaking: to acknowledge the atrocities that are happening in communities all over this nation.

That are happening for hundreds of years here and we are saying no more.

No more!

Even a young ashland girl named tatem spoke a few, powerful words to the crowd.

Tatem: and i would like to thank you all for being here because black lives do matter and they matter to me and they matter to everyone in this community.

(drop key) one person burned a paper american flag, but the speakers at ashland plaza were quick to detest that action.

They said that's not what we are here for.

A peaceful protest is what they wanted and there plenty of calls to action.

Nats and in the end, it ended with 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence.

Nat the amount of time the police officer