Demonstrators press on despite low turnout

WARREN

Blackout Warren, an attempt to mobilize the black community against violence in a noon demonstration Saturday, attracted only 14 people — well below the 300 organizers hoped would show up.

The low turnout did not dissuade participants who vowed to get more of the community involved.

“It only takes one to make a difference,” said Moneki Huff of Warren.

Some of the demonstrators were more focused on deaths from police confrontations in Ferguson, Mo., New York and Cleveland than they were about crime in Warren. Two of the signs read “Hands Up” and “Don’t Shoot”—a reference to the events in Ferguson, and Cleveland where a 12-year old boy brandishing a toy gun was shot and killed by a police officer.

Police “need to take a different tactic before they take the life of a child and we do need to speak out,” said Andrea Talbott of Warren.

Huff and some of the other participants, however, said their bigger concern is the violence on the streets of Warren.

“I’m not negating what you’re saying,” Huff said referring to the signs, “but the issue in our city is that we want to stop this from happening.”

Read the full story in Sunday's Vindicator.