Organizers plan protests throughout metro in response to George Floyd’s death

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – People are organizing protests around the metro after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

 

A protest in Midwest City started with just one person, but grew to a group of about a dozen strangers. 

 

“My dad is about the same size as [Floyd] and everything, so I picture my dad laying on the floor saying, ‘I cannot breathe, I cannot breathe,'” Christopher Bibbs, who initiated the gathering,  said. 

 

Protests are also planned in Oklahoma City and Norman.

“It could have been me, it could have been your brother, your husband,” Keivon Giles, an organizer of the Norman protest, said. 

“I don’t think we would treat an animal like that. We would be in an uproar if an officer was suffocating a dog on the street,” Karla Edwards, another Norman organizer, said.

“I wanted to be [Floyd’s] mama. He called out for his mom, and we watched them for nine minutes torture until he had no life,” the Rev. T. Sheri Dickerson, executive director of Black Lives Matter in Oklahoma City, said. “We are tired of being treated inhumanely just because of melanin in our skin.”

The Black Lives Matter protest is not only for George Floyd, but for every person who’s been victimized by racism and oppression.

 

Whether it’s Minneapolis or Midwest City and Oklahoma City, the message is the same.

“We don’t want to have any more hashtags and memorials,” Dickerson said.

“As long as you sit there behind your phone and behind your computer and say stuff without putting your feet to the pavement, you’re part of the problem. Until you become a part of the solution, things will not change,” Teronika Edwards, who was at the Midwest City protest, said.

The Black Lives Matter protest in Oklahoma City will be on May 31 at 2:30 p.m. at 36th St. and Kelley. 

 

The Norman protest will be June 1 at 2 p.m. at Andrews Park.