This past weekend, I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed and I found an event posted by Salt Lake City Weekly named “SLC Stands with Ferguson” for a rally happening the next day. It had to do with the Ferguson issue and police brutality. If you don’t watch the news or have any outlet to any news or media (Don’t know how you’re reading this then, but thank you 
), in August of this year a young man named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer for stealing from a local store. After the shooting, riots, protests, and curfews were put on the people of Ferguson. On November 24th, the riots and protests spread throughout the country when the police officer, Darren Wilson, was not indicted by the grand jury. Most riots and protests are for the awareness of Police Brutality and racism overall. One of those cities that decided to protest was our own Salt Lake City. A small protest was held the day the grand jury announced their decision, but a much bigger and publicized protest was this past Saturday, November 29th.
I’ve never been a political person, I don’t watch the news or research it, and any breaking news that happens in the world, I usually find out through Facebook or any other social media outlet. When I saw the invitation for the rally, I was hesitant at first, but being a young college student, I’ll be honest, I was extremely intrigued. I decided to attend the rally and since I’m a small 5’5 girl and seeing how violent other riots got in other cities, I decided to bring a male friend that I could hide behind and throw into the crowd in case something crazy happened.
In the end, despite my worry, the rally was extremely peaceful and kept together. The protest went all the way around Downtown Salt Lake, hitting all the major federal buildings in the city. Sure, there were a couple of extremely angry people that probably just needed some water and a piece of cake, but they were more than willing to stop their cursing, pose for a picture, and have a peaceful conversation. The Salt Lake City Police even escorted and stopped traffic for the protesters. Overall, it was an interesting, peaceful, and eye opening experience for me. I have a stronger respect and understanding of Salt Lake City and was proud to be at an event that will probably go in the history books of Utah.
[ORIGINAL POST ON SALTROADS.COM]