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A Third Straight Weekend Of Protests As Demonstrations Move Outside City Center

george floyd protest cincinnati
Jason Whitman
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WVXU
People hold up signs in support of the Black Lives Matter movement outside the Mariemont Inn on Sunday, June 14.

Demonstrators took to the streets for a third straight weekend in Cincinnati, though this time, not always at the typical Downtown targets of City Hall and the Hamilton County Courthouse. Marches in protest of police brutality against minorities continued to spread to the Cincinnati suburbs, and often with just as large crowds as their Downtown counterpoints. 

On Sunday, in the village of Mariemont, Ohio - with a population of just over 3,400 - WVXU photographer Jason Whitman estimated more than 1,000 people attended a demonstration at the Village Square. As they marched, they chanted, "no justice, no peace; no racist police" and many other familiar protest refrains.  

george floyd protests cincinnati
Credit Jason Whitman / WVXU
/
WVXU
Demonstrators continue to march in protest for the seventeenth straight day over the murder of George Floyd and other victims of police brutality, Sunday, June 14, 2020, in Mariemont.

On Friday, hundreds of demonstrators marched the streets of Oakley and Hyde Park. Last weekend, demonstrations were held in West Chester and Madeira

These Cincinnati neighborhoods are not alone. Suburban areas from from Wenatchee, Wash., to Coatesville, Pa., are also seeing their residents take to the streets. 

"I think people are tired," Coatesville's Assistant City Manager James Logan told CBS News. "It's just been boiling for so long and now it's just running over." 

george floyd protests cincinnati
Credit Jason Whitman / WVXU
/
WVXU
A woman holds up a sign as Jay Minor speaks near the conclusion of Sunday's protest in Mariemont.

Josiah Seurkamp organized Friday's protest in Oakley and Hyde Park. He told WVXU why he chose those two neighborhoods for his march. 

"I realize that there's a lot of people in these neighborhood that want change, that aren't given many opportunities to speak up about it and I feel like having a protest in these neighborhoods are going to give those people a voice," the 19-year-old said. "And then show the people that don't understand and don't know there's a problem -- or, are afraid to accept that there's a problem -- that there is an issue and they're going to have to deal with it very soon."

On Sunday in Mariemont, the crowd cheered after speaker Jay Minor took a knee while talking about the Pledge of Allegiance. 

"What I'm about to say may startle some people. ... I never pledge allegiance to the flag, because it says 'and liberty and justice for all,' " he said as he fell to his knee. "I don't see it. I don't see it. And if you don't see it, I want you to do these things, because we have difficult days ahead."

Jennifer Merritt brings 20 years of "tra-digital" journalism experience to WVXU.