Police officers worked with organizers on a route, kept marchers and citizens safe.
Frederick, Md (KM) There was no violence during Saturday’s March for Justice in Frederick, and Police Chief Jason Lando credits organizers for working with the Department to make that happen. He says those putting on the march reached out to police and wanted keep it peaceful.
“This wasn’t going to be an ‘F the Police’ rally or anything like that. We got together. We had a great conversation. I told them ‘I’ll be hand just to kind of help guide things that day’ because we had a good conversation, and there was some trust there,” he says.
The march began at City Hall, and went down North Market Street. It ended up at Mullinix Park where a rally took place. . Participants were expressing their support for the “Black Lives Matter” movement and against racial inequity. It was an anniversary of last year’s march following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Chief Lando, who was a guest Monday on the “Morning News Express” on WFMD, said he and other officers were on hand to help make the march safe for participants and other citizens. “But when they started moving, we saw that there was some traffic in the roadway.. So I along with a couple of other officers, walked ahead of the group—you could see they were carrying the banner–and we just kind of helped give them safe passage,” he says.
There was no violence during the march and protest, and Chief Lando credits organizers with keeping it peaceful. “And the one thing that I appreciated was the open communication ahead of time where they sat down and said ‘here’s the map. We would just like to go from City Hall to Mullinix Park We want a 15-minute march, and we would just appreciate the support,'” he said. “And they invited us to join them in the park afterward because one of their things was they wanted a better relationship with the police.”
About 100 people took part in the march on Saturday.
By Kevin McManus