Lawrence mayor watches as protesters sound off

LAWRENCE, Mass. — The Lawrence police station remains surrounded by barriers to keep protesters away.

That's in preparation for any protests coming up including the one planned for Sunday that the department said it would join.

During Friday's protest, crowds didn't bother. There was no marching, this was just a very peaceful demonstration for a couple of hours promoting a message of acceptance, unity, and equality.

"We want to start off by giving a moment of silence for all the black lives that have been lost in all the injustices that of happened due to police brutality and injustice," said one protester.

Whether in English or Spanish the message was clear. That Black Lives Matter.

“The fight didn’t start today it started with our ancestors, they started and by God, we are going to finish," said Grace Ngethe, a nursing student from Kenya. "For one they (family) are shocked. They are scared for me ‘Oh my gosh why would you leave home and come here to get killed.’ The other thing is they don’t understand how you act like you’re a first world country. It’s 2020 grow up. This is about humanity, if you don’t see something is wrong you have a problem and we’re not going to be the ones to educate you, your parents should’ve done better. I’m not going to have my nephew fighting for the same movement. We’re going to finish this because we are going to get change. Can I curse?”

We’ll keep the message clean, but the passion was felt all through, even by Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera who was in attendance.

"It’s something that’s got to stop and for them, they’re not sure if it’s going to," said Rivera. "We’ve all had it but for them to have a whole life ahead of them and they’re wondering if this is gonna be the future."

Organized by several groups they stood in the middle of the common allowing anyone to take the bullhorn and speak.

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Mayor Dan Rivera speaks with Boston 25 at Lawrence protest Boston 25 News reporter Wale Aliyu spoke with Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera from a protest Friday evening.

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