UPDATED: April 30, 2015 at 8:48 p.m.

Around 100 members of the Syracuse University community rallied Thursday and marched downtown to show solidarity with ongoing protests in Baltimore.

Students and community activists gathered in front of Hendricks Chapel around noon and then marched in protest around the city on in response to recent unrest in Baltimore surrounding the death of Freddie Gray, who suffered fatal injuries while in police custody.

The rally started on the Quad, with protesters standing in a large circle while rally leaders spoke in the middle.

Colton Jones, a senior psychology major, spoke first by reading a statement released by co-founders of the Black Lives Matter Movement in response to the protests and riots in Baltimore on Monday.

“We stand in solidarity with the people of Baltimore and the millions of black people around the country who are tired of poverty, racism and state sanctioned murder,” Jones read.

Nikeeta Slade, an SU graduate student, spoke next to the circle of protestors about how Syracuse has the same problems with poverty, racism and police brutality as Baltimore.

“Anyone who has a sincere love of humanity should be angry,” Slade said into a bullhorn.

Slade added that the mainstream media should not be focusing on the looting that occurred during the protests in Baltimore.

“You want to talk about looting? $60,000 tuition, that’s looting,” Slade said.

The protest continued in front of Carnegie Library, where demonstrators read the names of other black males killed by police, including Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott and Michael Brown.

As the crowd was listing the names of black victims of police violence, one protester yelled, “the one that’s going to happen tomorrow,” and another one said, “the unreported.”

Protesters held signs reading “black lives matter” and “silence = violence” while chanting, “resistance is justified when people are occupied” and “2, 4, 6, 8, smash the police state.”

Leaders of the protest hung a banner reading, “black lives matter” on the top of the Hall of Languages.

Jones said the banner was the movement’s way of making a mark on campus.

Demonstrators then marched down University Avenue, turning onto Harrison Street until they reached the Syracuse Police Department building on State Street downtown. As the protesters were marching, they periodically blocked traffic in the middle of the street.

Drivers honked, both out of frustration with the halted traffic and in support of the protest. Some drivers even stuck their fists out and chanted along with the demonstrators.

Once in front of SPD and the Onondaga County Sheriff headquarters, the protesters formed a circle in the middle of the State Street and Jefferson Street intersection. People chanted and spoke in the intersection for around five minutes.

“They tell us to bring order,” a protest leader yelled in the middle of the intersection. “But our lives are never in order.”

The march ended at Clinton Square, where protesters spoke about their personal encounters with police.

After Gray’s funeral in Baltimore on Monday, protests broke out and eventually turned violent, with some looting stores and lighting cars on fire. More than 200 protesters were arrested, according to an April 28 BuzzFeed news article.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called in the National Guard and instituted a city-wide 10 p.m. curfew on Monday. The following protests on Tuesday and Wednesday remained mostly peaceful.

Baltimore Police Chief Anthony Batts told reporters on Thursday, right before the march, that his department turned over the results of an investigation into Gray’s death to state prosecutors. He added that the findings of the investigation would not be made public.

Published on April 30, 2015 at 6:09 pm

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu