Protesters march for justice, peace in downtown Camas

Dozens of Camas community members joined together last week to protest police violence against people of color and to support the international Black Lives Matter human rights movement.

Holding signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” “No Justice, No Peace,” “No Freedom Until We are Equal,” and “We Want Reform,” the protesters marched through downtown Camas at noon on Friday, June 5, and gathered on Northeast Third Avenue near the Camas Burgerville and Arco gas station.

According to the Camas High School student newspaper, the Camasonian, the march followed a similar protest held June 2 and both were organized by three Camas High students.

“… we had 50 people here (on June 2),” Kennedy Gardner, one of those Camas High organizers, told Camasonian reporters covering the march on Friday. “There were so many people asking us to do it again, so we decided to come back out, and here we are.”

The May 25 death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black father of two who died in police custody after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, has prompted worldwide protests and calls for police reforms.

The Camas-Washougal United for Change group, which describes itself as “committed to standing up for change in America — to fight systemic racism and corruption (and) to demand more accountability in our community’s law enforcement policies,” show more protests happened in Camas on Sunday, June 7, as well as in Washougal.

For more information about that group, visit “Camas-Washougal United for Change” on Facebook. To read the Camasonian’s coverage, visit camasonian.camas.wednet.edu/2020/06/06/hundreds-rally-for-blm-in-downtown-camas/