{"id":16061,"date":"2020-06-05T13:48:45","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T21:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=16061"},"modified":"2020-06-05T14:18:52","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T22:18:52","slug":"polk-county-residents-gather-in-monmouth-to-protest-police-brutality-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/polk-county-residents-gather-in-monmouth-to-protest-police-brutality-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County residents gather in Monmouth to protest police brutality, racism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Content Warning:<\/strong> This story shares quotes from residents of Polk County explicitly describing their experiences with racism. These quotes may be seen as graphic and triggering.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Caity Healy<\/strong> | Managing Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryday we are met with hate.\u201d This is what Dallas, Oregon resident Crystal Hayter had to say as to why her and her wife, Jasmine Hayter, decided to protest on June 4 in Monmouth, Oregon. Crystal self-identifies as a caucasian woman, and Jasmine self-identifies as an African American woman. They shared what a day in their life looks like for them as Polk County residents.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe wasn\u2019t allowed to go on my lease after we were married because she\u2019s African American \u2026 There are certain businesses that refuse to do service with my wife unless I bring them the money. They will not take it out of her hand,\u201d Crystal shared. \u201cJust two days ago, our neighbors were out on the porch telling her, \u2018Go back inside N-word.\u2019 And honestly, that\u2019s our everyday life in Polk County.\u201d She shared stories of people in Dallas threatening to run them out of town, saying they should be tarred and feathered, and even saying that they miss the town\u2019s \u201clynching tree.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jasmine went on to add that, \u201cI want this to end, and I want this to end peacefully. People need to stop dying.\u201d Her voice trembled as she spoke and she shared her story. Jasmine is one of many who shared sentiments as to why they were protesting on the intersection of Pacific Avenue and Main Street.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Carrying signs with messages such as \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d and \u201cNo Justice, No Peace,\u201d at 4:30 p.m. on June 4, as well as on June 3, people took to the streets to protest police brutality in the name of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other black people whose lives were taken by police. Most wearing masks, as this protest came in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cloth over their mouths could not keep them silent. Chants and honks were heard from far reaching ends of Monmouth. Some were there to be heard, others were more quiet but attended as an act of solidarity, some were passing out water bottles to those in attendance, but there was a general consensus amongst those present: change needs to happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Organizer of the event, Monmouth resident Carol McKiel, along with her husband Allen McKiel, stood alongside everyone holding their \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d signs. Carol explained that the reason she formed this event was due to her questioning, \u2018what can I do?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just got up on Monday morning and thought, I have a \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019 sign, and I\u2019m going to stand on the street corner and I\u2019ll do that as long as I need to.\u201d So, Carol, along with Allen and a couple of her friends, did just that. It started with just the four of them, but by contacting their neighborhood, it slowly reached more people. By June 3, Carol claimed that there were over 120 people protesting on the street with her.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s really significant is we have white people standing out here with \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019 signs \u2026 White people need to take this on if we\u2019re going to fix it,\u201d Carol added. Allen, her husband, chimed in as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a way for everybody to show everybody else that we\u2019re concerned. We\u2019re not alone in being concerned and this is really, really terrible, and we\u2019re waking up to the fact that it\u2019s been terrible all along.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another resident of Monmouth, one who lives in the same neighborhood as Carol and was invited to the protest through her message, shared a similar sentiment. Her name is Rebecca Salinas-Oliveros, and she self-identifies as a Latina woman. She expressed her concern with what\u2019s going on, and especially with how it will reflect on her daughters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m out here to show my daughters that there\u2019s still a little bit of hope. They\u2019ve been really grieving. And this has been very hard for them,\u201d Salinas-Oliveros said. \u201cAnd as a mother, I have to be real with them. It\u2019s hard to maintain hope, and just to make sure they know, yeah, it\u2019s probably not going to get better any time soon, but we have to continue to try.\u201d However, she expressed some hope and optimism due to the fact that Monmouth, a rural town, was able to come together for this protest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t expect it. I don\u2019t think anyone really knew what to do. And this… this helps just not to be sad all the time. It gives me hope that even in a small town, there are white people willing to step up,\u201d Salinas-Oliveros added. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really what we need. We need white people to step up because that\u2019s where the power and the privilege is in our country. And they\u2019re the ones that are going to create the change and people are going to listen to. So seeing the number of white people out here gives us hope.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While Salinas-Oliveros did express a level of optimism, not all in attendance felt the same. One man, who chose to remain anonymous, opened up and shared what he was thinking while protesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a colored person myself, it just hurts bad,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen this is all over, I\u2019m still colored. It\u2019s going to happen again. Nothing\u2019s gonna change. All we can have is hope.\u201d He added that, \u201cI don\u2019t know if tomorrow I\u2019m going to make it … I could be going down the street and all of a sudden I get pulled over and I\u2019m gone. Just like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Noticeably, there were no Monmouth police officers present at the event; this didn\u2019t sit right with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t been here. They were not seen, and I\u2019m like, do they even care? The people care who are here protesting, but do the cops care? The way I see it, they don\u2019t.\u201d He was not the only one who was uncomfortable with the lack of police solidarity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t even see any cops around here, so we don\u2019t even know if they\u2019re listening to us. We need to see change from them,\u201d said another anonymous source. \u201cWe come out here to support this movement but we don\u2019t know if anything is gonna happen because they\u2019re just sitting over there doing whatever they want. We don\u2019t see support from them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The protesting continued from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. For the most part, it was met with honks, waves and smiles. There was some retaliation, though; some waved their middle fingers at the protestors, some yelled \u201cAll Lives Matter\u201d in return to their chants, and some even went as far as to yell \u201cF–k you\u201d to the protestors. Thirty minutes later, and just eight miles away, protests were happening in a neighboring town: Dallas.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The protest in Dallas, organized by resident Chaney Poulsen, was considerably smaller than the one in Monmouth. It was met with some waves and approval, with even the local Dominos donating a few pizzas to the cause. But similarly, it was met with two people waving \u201cTrump 2020\u201d signs, one yelling at the protestors \u201cTrump 2020\u201d and many heads shaking to express disapproval. In attendance at this protest were two people who also attended the one in Monmouth, Crystal and Jasmine Hayter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnough is enough,\u201d Crystal concluded. \u201c(Jasmine) could be the next person, and I\u2019m not okay with that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protests in Monmouth are planned to continue daily in the same place at 4:30 p.m. Carol McKiel says to bring umbrellas, because they\u2019ll be out there shouting \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d come rain or sunshine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos by Hannah Greene<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The protest in Dallas, organized by resident Chaney Poulsen, was considerably smaller than the one in Monmouth. It was met with some waves and approval, with even the local Dominos donating a few pizzas to the cause. But similarly, it was met with two people waving \u201cTrump 2020\u201d signs, one yelling at the protestors \u201cTrump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":16077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}