((PKG))  PROTEST IN A SMALL TOWN   
((TRT:  09:27)) 
((Banner:  Protest in a Small Town))  
((Reporter/Camera:  Deepak Dobhal)) 
((Map:  Minerva, Ohio)) 
((Main characters:  1 female; 1 male))  
((Sub characters:  2 female; 1 male))  
((NATS))   
((July 7, 2020)) 
Black lives matter.  Black lives matter.   
All lives still matter.   
Black lives matter.  Black lives matter.  Black lives matter.     
All lives can't matter till Black lives matter. 
Just go home.  Just go home.  Just go home.   
Black lives matter.  
Blue lives matter.  Blue lives matter. 
All lives matter. 
Just go home.  Just go home.  Just go home.  Just go home.    
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
They just burned a Black Lives Matter flag.  That's alright.  That's 
alright.  They can do that.  They can be disrespectful.  
((NATS)) 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
There was no need to disrespect them. 
It was very clear to me quickly that we were not dealing  
with a hostile group of people who were here to wreck  
and pillage things. 
((NATS)) 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
I went there yesterday not exactly knowing what to expect  
but knowing what I'd seen on TV, a large crowd of Black Lives 
Matter protesters. 
And not only that.  From what I've seen on the TV and mediaand 
news, a violent crowd of Black Lives Matter 
protesters.  So that's why I went prepared and to help stop  
any damage to my friends and families and businesses there 
in the town. 
((NATS)) 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
When I got there, that isn't what I saw at all. 
I would say they numbered 15 to 20, plus or minus a little bit. 
Just young people wanted to get their voice out. 
((NATS))  
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
Yesterday, in Minerva, was definitely a day I will never  
forget.  We had a relatively small group and they definitely  
outnumbered us  
and I would say a solid percent of those people had at  
least an AK or a rifle, like a huge gun.  
It was an intimidation tactic. 
((NATS)) 
((Bianca Houze, Bartender)) 
I don't necessarily believe that the people with guns were 
there to intimidate. 
We were there to protect anyone that needed protected 
whether it was BLM or a Minerva citizen or an officer. 
We wanted to make sure that if that force was needed that  
we were there and ready.  It had nothing to do with  
intimidation. 
((NATS)) 
Black lives matter.  Black lives matter.  Black lives matter. 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
I thought a lot of the people that would show up would be 
like me, would be carrying their weapons and would be  
there to protect their community.  Not to antagonize.  
Not to throw gas on the fire. 
((NATS)) 
All lives matter, just not Blacks. 
All lives matter, just not Blacks. 
All lives matter, just not Blacks. 
Now go home to your mommy's basement. 
Go home. 
Go back home to your mommy's basement. 
Go home. 
((NATS)) 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
What they're doing is a right that myself and every other  
veteran secured for them.  The right to protest.  
The right to march.  It's not a problem. 
((NATS)) 
Black lives matter all day, every day. 
Black lives matter all day, every day. 
((Bianca Houze, Bartender)) 
Most of the BLM protesters were from out of town.  They  
were not people that live in the community.  There were  
a few that are from 
Minerva.  I don't understand why they're coming to a  
community that is not their own. 
((NATS)) 
I don't know what you came to do.  
I don't know what you came to do. 
But I came here to protest.  
Protest. 
Minerva is here to protest. 
Protest. 
Black lives matter.  
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
We protested in 
Minerva because we got quite a few requests to be in  
Minerva.  There 
are biracial and Black children that live in that community  
who feel uncomfortable. 
((NATS)) 
Black lives matter.  
((Ashley Marie, Vice President, Ohio Community Coalition) 
In Minerva and other small towns, we go educate people and 
try to have people that are afraid to stand up to come out of their  
houses and be on the street with us.  So, it's more about  
unity and not division. 
((NATS)) 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
Typically when we're in bigger cities, a lot of the issue stems from  
their police.  
In Minerva, they don't have a big police brutality issue.  So, when 
we're here in Canton, a lot of the things that we say 
are, you know,  
“Hey hey, ho ho, these racist cops have got to go.”   
Or  
“No justice, no peace, no racist police.”   
We did refrain from those types of chants yesterday. 
((NATS)) 
Ohio is my home. 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
One of the bigger, you know, messages that we were getting at  
yesterday is that the color of my skin shouldn't matter but it does.  
((NATS)) 
White people are being violated too.  
They are. 
You say Black lives matter.  It's all lives matter. 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
When somebody says Black lives matter, small town  
America  
hears ‘only Black lives matter.’  I believe that's where the  
Black Lives 
Matter gets off track with your middle American people. 
Unfortunately, I do believe that racism still exists in America. 
I think it's not the way people envision it.  When I say people,  
I mean people 
like myself, your everyday white person.  Okay. 
We have no animosity towards any other groups of people,  
any ethnicities. 
But the racism is so ingrained that we don't even realize  
we're doing it.  
In my opinion, Mr. [George] 
Floyd was murdered by that police officer right  
there on video.  And it hurt me.  It hurt me very badly that 
this happened in my country, a country that so many people 
from the very beginning have sacrificed, some of them all,  
everything, their lives, to make a different kind of country. 
((NATS)) 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
When people were yelling and screaming, “All lives matter. 
White lives matter.  You are racist”, 
threatening dogs and guns, I was hurt but my other emotion was  
just kind of, “Wow, this is why we're here. This is why.” 
((NATS)) 
All lives can't matter till Black lives matter. 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
When we say Black lives matter, we're not saying only  
Black 
lives matter.  We're simply saying that there is a crisis in the Black 
community.  We need to do what we can in our own  
cities to make a change. 
((NATS)) 
Thank you so much. 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
The way that they conducted themselves was very  
instrumental in  
changing a lot of people's minds.  There it is, right there.  
“People that showed up 
probably were not going to burn our town down.  But you  
don't know unless you show up.  
There were people there saying the N-
word.  There was some old guy that said it over and over  
again and I wanted to smack the F*** out of him because that's  
wrong!” 
((Bianca Houze, Bartender)) 
There were the few 
that were not a good representation of this town. 
((Josh Calhoun, Oil/Gas Facility Operator)) 
Towards the end though, it did have positives, like  
everybody did  
start talking.  There were positive talks at the end. 
Even though people were still coming in the back and still yelling 
and having their opinion, 
there were still positive talks that happened.  
((NATS)) 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
The conversation that we had today was important.  We ought to 
see where they were coming from civilly, civilly.  A lot of people, 
when we have come as protesters, all they want to do is riot.  
They are the rioters.  Today, there was a different story.  They 
protested their city.  We protested our message.  We did what we 
had to do.  We all upheld our First Amendment right and I'm very 
proud of Minerva for doing that.  So, make some noise, Minerva. 
((NATS)) 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
Whether the outcome was, you know, they were still mad, 
we didn't feel like we got through, we got through.  
Whatever the outcome was, there was an open dialogue and 
that was very productive. 
((NATS))