Make wishtv.com your home page

Hundreds of protesters peacefully march Wednesday night

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Hundreds of protesters peacefully marched around the city for more than three hours Wednesday night.

Leaders said they will continue marching until their list of demands is met. Many of the demands echo what the family of Dreasjon Reed said earlier in the day.

His name was the constant theme of the march. Reed is the 21-year-old man who was shot and killed by police as he was streaming live on Facebook. Police say Reed had fired at them.

According to organizers, three primary demands come from the Reed family: all officers named and fired who arrived within 30 minutes of showing up to the scene because they say they covered up the truth, police to be honest and truthful about Reed and they want police to be held accountable so it can’t happen again.

The march Wednesday began right around 5 p.m. from Monument Circle.

There were hundreds of people, an even larger crowd than Tuesday’s march, led by the Indy10 Black Lives Matter group.

They went around the city, going up on Delaware Street before turning onto St. Clair Street and then south on West Street. They stopped in the intersection of West and Michigan for almost 20 minutes before rallying at Military Park and back to the Circle on Ohio well after 8 p.m. for a final round of speeches and chants.

IMPD bike patrol units both led the way and served as a rear guard to serve as apparent crowd control for other vehicles. Other patrol cars blocked various intersections to allow protesters to cross safely.

Other demands include for the IMPD Use of Force police to be reviewed as well as the creation of an Accountability Board made up of citizens not selected by the mayor.

“If it was me by myself out here, I wouldn’t care,” said protester Zion Smith. “More and more people out here is great. Numbers are great. They can’t attack all of us if we’re here. At the same time, this is more than just a movement for press and tv. I am a black man. I am tired of being tired.”

March on Delaware

Posted by Dan Klein on Wednesday, June 3, 2020