100+ march from Salisbury U. to Salisbury Police Dept. fighting for racial justice

SALISBURY, Md. – Dozens of people, signs, and a nearly three mile walk: that’s what happened in Salisbury on Wednesday night as protesters made their way from Salisbury University to the Salisbury Police Department calling for racial justice.

“We have some things to fix with our police departments, and it starts right here in our own backyards,” D’Shawn Doughty, one protester, said.

“We do have racist people in city council, we have racist police out here, and we do have racist government officials and it needs to be addressed and changed,” Alexxus Elsey, another protester, said.

Protesters say the point of marching to the police department with signs, shirts, and even flags was to show that they won’t stand for racial injustice at the hands of cops in the city.

“We’re not against them, cops in general, but it does start with policing our own police, we have a duty to make sure that everyone is held accountable,” Doughty said.

Protesters say it was an emotional night, seeing dozens and dozens of people of all races standing up for what’s right.

“I almost cried because I didn’t really think people really wanted to address racism particularly in Salisbury, when it does exist, most people really are quiet about it,” Elsey said.

And that, while Salisbury hasn’t made headlines for police brutality like other cities such as Minneapolis have, they’re doing everything they can to prevent something like that from happening here.

“Salisbury is just like any of those places, we are not immune to those things, and if we don’t fix those issues now, we will be the Minneapolis, we’ve got to fix the issues now, today, so it doesn’t happen in the future,” Doughty said.

Elsey adds that she hopes people continue to protest, sign petitions, and stay involved even when this momentum dies down. She said she personally hopes to see events like tonight’s last into the fall.