For the third consecutive Sunday, community members gathered in downtown State College for a Black Lives Matter demonstration to protest police brutality and racial injustice.
The protests began at noon and organizers said they plan for it to continue until midnight. The 100 block of South Allen Street and College Avenue between Pugh and Fraser streets were closed to vehicle traffic throughout the afternoon.
The demonstrations have been among a nationwide movement spurred by the recent police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Locally, they’ve also focused on the death of Osaze Osagie, a 29-year-old black man shot and killed by State College police who had come to his apartment to serve a mental health warrant on March 20, 2019.
The officers involved were cleared of wrong doing by the Centre County District Attorney’s Office and an internal department review. But some community members — including the 3/20 Coalition — have rejected those findings and have repeatedly called for changes to local policing and how mental health warrants are served.
A list of the coalition’s 10 demands for changes was read at last week’s protest, and presented in person to borough officials on Thursday. Borough Councilman Dan Murphy later outlined a plan for State College police reforms, which fellow Councilman Evan Myers endorsed on Saturday.
Sunday’s demonstration was organized by eight young women: Penn State sophomore Kyra Gines, 2020 State College Delta graduate Ava Schreier, current Delta students Lena Logan Adams, Sophia Galvin and Anabelle Walters, and current State High students Rija Sabeeh, Grace Jones and Chidere Oputa.
began at the intersection of South Allen Street and College Avenue before participants marched through downtown with chants such as ‘Black lives matter’ and ‘No justice, no peace,’ before making its way to the State College Municipal Building on the 200 block of South Allen Street.
Outside the Municipal Building, where protestors filled the plaza and street, Osagie’s parents, Sylvester and Iyun, spoke to the crowd.
‘I don’t have people I consider to be my enemies. Even if I did I would not wish on them what we experienced with the loss of our son,’ Sylvester Osagie said. ‘The demand for justice, equity humane treatment is a just demand and it is the right thing to do.’
‘State College is a beautiful town, with beautiful people. We are blessed to have been able to call this town our home for 28 years. This is why we are calling on every sector of this society, including members of the police department to join us in calling for serious, well-meaning police reform — reform that includes accountability and transparency so that no family again experiences the loss of a child in such a tragic fashion.’
Iyun Osagie said civiil rights must be protected and called for accountability and transparency in the Centre Region.
‘No matter the race we must believe we belong here and that the laws work for everyone,’ she said. ‘Excessive force, micro-aggressions, systemic racism and injustices of every stripe must stop. It is when people stand up to say enough is enough that barriers to fairness fall, It is when people stand up to say enough is enough that evil gives way to light. We have to resist evil. That which is evil will not go away simply because we hope it will. Evil must be actively resisted.
‘I say to the police, speak up when you see injustice in your ranks. Speak up when you know in your heart that certain actions and behaviors are reprehensible. It is not high moral ground to side with evil.’
The protest moved back to College Avenue and the 100 block of South Allen Street, where demonstrators were writing messages in chalk, music played and there were a series of speakers at an open mic.
See photos from the demonstration in the gallery below.
Videos and photos by Ben Jones
