Children, teens take part in peaceful protest in North Las Vegas
Young children held handmade signs calling for the end of police brutality while teenagers stood along the sidewalk chanting at a peaceful protest calling for the end of racism and police brutality Thursday night in North Las Vegas.
Organizer Henry Thorns said the Martin Luther King statue, at 1344 W. Carey Ave., was intentionally chosen as the protest location to encourage a peaceful gathering of the neighborhood’s youngest.
“We are always told to respect the police,” Thorns said. “Then we find out the people we’re told to respect are the ones doing the most harm.”
Thorns said that as a Las Vegas local he is surprised at the racism that has reared its head in recent years in the city.
“Back in 1977, 1979, everybody was getting along,” he said. “All of sudden, now I see the hate.”
The grass surrounding the statue was covered by the next generation. A Cheyenne youth football team and the Cheyenne Desert Shields cheer team performed routines, held signs and ate hot dogs at a gathering designed to teach the athletes about peaceful protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I just keep mine at home,” said Toya Turner, 38, a mother of four boys and aunt of several nephews whom she said are all on the football team. “They’re not looting or breaking into places.”
Turner said this is the only way she’d allow her children to participate in protest about racial injustice because it was peaceful.
“It’s something positive for them to do. They don’t have to riot or think all cops are bad,” she said.
Cheer coach Lola Walker said she wanted the 5 -and 6-year-olds she coaches to know that change starts at home and having a protest at the same time as in Washington D.C., where the March on Washington is slated for Friday.
“This is our next generation,” she said pointing to the little girls seated patiently in front of her, waiting to perform their routines. “It has to start in our own community.”
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
