In Collier County, demonstrations against police brutality in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police have remained mostly peaceful. Local protest organizers as well as the Collier County Sheriff’s Office say they want to keep demonstrations safe for all parties involved.
On Monday, hundreds of people marched from the Collier County courthouse to downtown Naples. It was the first protest to take place in the county during the recent wave of demonstrations against police brutality.
Collier County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Rich Hampton was there for the entire demonstration, which had a few tense moments, but remained mostly peaceful.
"We really did care about the safety of the protesters and we wanted to see everybody get home safe, uninjured and without incident," Hampton said. "That was our number one goal out there,"
While a handful of people were arrested during the demonstration, Hampton said CCSO fully supports citizens' rights to protest.
"I don’t think anybody in our community wants to see people be injured and or property and businesses destroyed because someone’e angry, you know, that’s not the right outlet for it and it's illegal, we’re pretty tolerant and we give people the space that they need," Hampton said. "If everybody is playing by the rules of law, then we’ll support it—we’ll walk them, we’ll march with them."
Tamara Paquette is a Collier-based community activist associated with several civic organizations. For years, she has served as a liaison between CCSO and advocacy groups. She said keeping the doors of communication open with law enforcement helps to keep demonstrators as well as deputies safe.
"We want to just make sure that we don’t have a culture of abuse, we don’t want to allow a culture of discrimination to rear its ugly head in our home, that’s just not acceptable here and we want to make sure everybody is safe, not just one demographic," Paquette said.
Paquette said the Sheriff’s Office is receptive to people’s concerns.
"I believe that our Sheriff’s department is open to having a dialogue and that they are listening, we just have to keep petitioning them and telling them what we want, because we are one human family and we all have the same goals; we want life liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Paquette said. "I believe that if we just keep working together that we are going to get it, and it’s happening right now."
For people looking to get involved with Collier civic organizations, Paquette recommended contacting the Collier NAACP chapter, Showing Up For Racial Justice, and Collier Freedom.
