BLM plans protest during Potsdam Back the Blue parade

POTSDAM, N.Y. (WWNY) - Potsdam’s Black Lives Matter group is planning a protest the same day that community is hosting a Back the Blue parade.

Both events are scheduled for Saturday, August 15.

In a Facebook post, the BLM group says it supports police and other first responders.

“We are not anti-police, we are anti-police brutality and killings, etc.,” the post says. “We won’t allow law enforcement to continue to target, brutalize, kill, lie on, frame or violate black people and POC (people of color).

Organizers say they will protest outside the Post Office on Elm Street and that it will be peaceful.

“We will let our signs do the talking,” the post said. “We will take a knee.”

The group said it wants to build positive relationships with police agencies throughout St. Lawrence County.

Some see Back the Blue events as political and a pushback against the BLM movement, but organizers of the Potsdam event say theirs will be different.

A Back the Blue event in Waddington last month became controversial.

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