Counter protest by white supremacists fails to materialize at Hutchinson event
Jarin Berger said he may have overprepared with 600 water bottles in an ice tub outside his home for the roughly 75 people who marched in support of social justice down Main Street in Hutchinson on Saturday.
Despite concerns about potential violence from protesters and counter-protests from white supremacists that led to several businesses being boarded up, the event went off without a hitch. All along the route, police stopped to block off traffic at intersections and every couple blocks someone handed out water to chanting protesters.
“I just wanted to let them know they were welcome here and we just thought water would be the best way,” Berger said, adding 600 water bottles was too much. “But, I mean it’s got all of our neighbors out. We are all kinda banding together and helping out so. That’s kinda what it’s all about.”
The protest had originally been set for Friday but was pushed back to Saturday after police asked the organizer to reset the date while they prepared for the worst. They also asked for the event to be canceled.
The Hutchinson NAACP said on Facebook it didn’t support the event and had “deep concern for the risk to black and brown Hutchinson residents.”
There had been threats that the Black Lives Matter protest, which was a demonstration against police brutality in the wake of the George Floyd killing last month while in police custody in Minneapolis, would be counter protested by white supremacy groups.
Organizer Teresa Delgado, who was catching her breath after the several block walk with temperatures in the 90s while police handed out water, said the threats were clearly false. Delgado said she thought the threats to the New Black Panther Party-backed event impacted the turnout.
The 28-year-old said there would be more protests.
The threats were credible enough that area officers, including the South Hutchinson Police Department and the Kansas Highway Patrol, had a visible presence.
Hutchinson Police Department Capt. Marty Robertson said the event lacked communications along the way but believed the pleas of the behind-the-scenes work from the NAACP and preparation from area law enforcement helped things go smoothly.
Robertson said there were a lot of threats on social media and they had to prepare as if they were serious.
“It was a great event. We all came together on it. No one got hurt,” Robertson said, adding he was not surprised to see all the people handing out water. “It’s Hutchinson, Kansas. Everybody supports everybody. We understand the cause. We get it.”
This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 4:03 PM.