Downtown protesters in Colorado Springs return to Police Operations Center Thursday
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The local movement against police brutality and use of excessive force returned to the Police Operations Center on Thursday for the first time since officers used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters early last week.
This time, however, the demonstration was peaceful and police allowed it to happen.
Shortly after 5 p.m., a crowd of protesters marched down the southbound lanes of Nevada Avenue, leaving City Hall and heading for police headquarters -- wearing black clothing, holding flowers and carrying cardboard coffins to honor citizens and suspects killed during shows of force by police.
"We want [police] to see this and we want them to feel uncomfortable," a protester said.
When the crowd arrived, it crossed over the same concrete barricades outside police headquarters that officers wouldn't allow them to cross in the early days of protests.
The crowd then gathered at the entrance for around 30 minutes, placed the coffins at the doors and held a rally before marching back to City Hall.
No police officers were visible as the protesters marched between the two locations.
Thursday's demonstration was titled "Honoring Lives Taken by CSPD," and began with a rally at City Hall.
"Most of them were black but we recognize that not all of them were," said Stephany Rose Spaulding, one of the organizers of the event. "It's the brutality and excessive force that we want to end, and we want people to know how many have died from it here in the city."
The rally at police headquarters was not far from where officers forcefully restrained -- and in a video appeared to be punching -- a man whom police said was resisting arrest and ignoring orders to disperse. That incident remains under investigation.
Protesters had not been to police headquarters since Tuesday night of last week, at the end of several days of confrontations between officers and demonstrators. Mayor John Suthers enacted a city-wide curfew the following day, and it ended Monday morning.
The protests -- if they continue -- will enter their third week this weekend.
Some demonstrators believe their voices are being heard after a proposed law enforcement accountability law passed both chambers in the Colorado Legislature this week, and a Colorado Springs City Council meeting to consider forming a citizen advisory board was held during Thursday's protest.
Lawrence Stoker, a cousin of De'von Bailey -- who was shot and killed while fleeing officers last summer -- said he appreciates the support from protesters.
"When it first happened, it was kind of weird, he said. "But after a while, seeing that it was for the good, everyone was doing it for the right reason, not for a bad reason, putting him down."
