SYLVANIA, Ohio — Protests continue in our area as young adults took to the streets of Sylvania on Thursday afternoon.
Nine University of Toledo seniors created the group Toledo Together after the death of George Floyd to push for change. They said they will continue to demonstrate until they see change.
People chanted "I can't breathe," some of the last words Floyd cried out before his death, at the protest, which started at Harroun Community Park in Sylvania. Black organizers said Floyd's words may have been his final, but they represent how the black community has felt for generations.
"We've grown to accept stuff," Toledo Together co-founder Jayla Few said, "and I feel like we're tired and I think the whole world is tired of hearing it."
This is the fifth protest the group has organized and said after that first week of some violence, protests are now peaceful. Even the police are helping or joining in the demonstrations.
"When we threw our very first protest, we didn't think any more than 10 people were going to come," Few said, "but we had over 200 and it just keeps growing."
As the protests continue nationwide, "defund the police" is an idea getting a lot of attention. But protesters in support want people to know, it doesn't mean eliminating the police entirely.
"Defunding or limiting the funding of police officers and actually putting it back into the community," Toledo Together co-founder Mariah Coleman said, "to increase education, decrease poverty rates and homelessness and all that."
And protesters argued it's not just about a budget cut. But it's also reducing the responsibility cops have now to respond to almost any type of call or situation, even ones they may not be the most qualified for.
"I feel like it's not a police officer's job to be a social worker, or a therapist," Few added. "They're there to protect against serious things."
Coleman pointed out in some states, it takes more time and training hours to obtain a license for other less dangerous jobs or trades than it does to become a police officer.
"It takes longer for a lawyer to know the law like eight or seven years," she said, "and a police officer that's supposed to interact with the law every day. It takes six months."
And the group says they will not be stopping anytime soon until they see structural change.
"Change doesn't come with the snap of a finger and nothing good comes with the blink of eye," Few said. "You have to work for it and we're working for this."