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SALT LAKE CITY — Some of those around the country speaking out for change are called activists, others are called protesters.
But all are the same thing: voices for change.
Rae Duckworth stopped for a moment Saturday night at a protest when she was called an "activist," saying she's just one voice — one of many, hundreds, even thousands — calling for the same thing: police reform and an end to police brutality.
And while she’s worked with organizations like Black Lives Matter, she’s mostly just a voice speaking for those who can’t.
“I don’t feel like I’m an activist; I just feel like I’m here for Bobby, because he didn’t get to say anything,” Duckworth told KSL.com, referring to her cousin who was shot and killed in 2019 by a Carbon County police officer. “He just got shot, and he needed a voice. I have mine, and I’m here to use that.”
Her voice was included — even vital, in many ways — in the most recent surge of a movement that is sweeping the nation.
She wasn’t alone either.
Black Lives Matter didn’t sponsor Saturday’s protest or its accompanying march through the streets, one that went up to State Street and down to 900 South, with multiple stops along the way. Several organizers and demonstrators have participated in the movement, sure, but there were other groups — other voices — taking the lead, as dozens have in constant demonstrations over the past two weeks.
Utah Against Police Brutality. Justice for Cody. The Salt Lake City Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
And those are just the names on the Saturday protest's accompanying Facebook event.
Professional athletes like Utah Jazz guard Nigel Williams-Goss have called for systemic change, as have college coaches and players like BYU offensive line coach Eric Mateos.
“This is what I’m talking about,” Duckworth told KSL.com. “For them to say, let’s rally up and show them we mean business, and we want to talk about this.
“We want justice, clearly. We want justice; and this many people and this many organizations show up.”
Demonstrations have ranged from the Utah State Capitol to the University of Utah to the Salt Lake City and County Building at Washington Square.
Saturday's group began coalescing at Pioneer Park, where they heard from individuals and leaders like Cassandra Houston, aka “Phoenix Child,” who admitted she was nervous because Saturday was her first public speech.
“All lives don’t matter until black and brown ones do,” said Houston, 26 to the crowd. “We must use our living, breathing hearts to denounce police.”
Then when she couldn’t speak any more, the poet and hip-hop performer did what she does best: she performed, reading a self-produced poem, and singing about her experiences as a black woman in Salt Lake.
Then the group peacefully marched through the streets, chanting “no justice, no peace,” and “this is what democracy looks like.”
The group marched throughout the city, surging up 300 South, cutting across State Street with the help of several police barricades diverting traffic, and down 500 West, where they stopped at the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
There, they halted to cry out for justice for those who couldn't speak for themselves — the victims of police brutality, both in Utah and abroad.
There’s where Duckworth addressed the crowd of hundreds, speaking on behalf of her cousin Bobby, who was shot and killed after a misdemeanor court appearance when he was approached while in a field by an police officer from Carbon County, who can be heard on body camera footage talking to Bobby Duckworth as he walked toward the officer with a knife in each hand.
She urged those in attendance to sign a change.org petition started by Black Lives Matter's Utah chapter founder Lex Scott calling for police reform and independent civilian review boards to investigate officer misconduct.
“I don’t know everything,” she said moments after finishing speaking to the crowd. “But I know there is an issue in this country, and I want it resolved.”
Black Lives Matter rally
Urged to get out and vote, 1K protesters eschew marching after early morning Black Lives Matter gathering
More than 1,000 people gathered at Washington Square Park shortly after 6 a.m., and the crowd grew throughout the morning as speakers from all walks of life and several ethnic communities addressed them from the steps of the Salt Lake City-County Building in a protest officially organized and recognized by the Utah chapter of Black Lives Matter.On the steps of the building, they metaphorically cried out to Salt Lake District Attorney Sim Gill, and called for him to “do your job.” They also called for specific action, like demonstrating for change, boycotting businesses that don’t support their cause, voting regularly, and ending Utah HB 415, which prohibits municipalities from establishing a board or committee with certain powers over a police chief.
“It affects us. Even if you have a privilege and it’s not personally affecting you, it’s affecting me — and I’m your neighbor,” Rae Duckworth told KSL.com. “If we’re all going to live on this globe and keep it turning, we’ve got to be on the same team. We’re all one team, one species; we’re just built beautifully different. The sooner we get to accepting everyone as whole, there’s not going to be anything stopping us.
“The next president is probably out there.”
Rae Duckworth wasn’t the only one speaking on behalf of those who couldn’t speak for themselves, like her cousin, who she said struggled with his mental health. Demonstrators repeatedly called out remembrance for George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who was killed while under police watch, where one officer has been charged with second-degree murder after video shows him kneeling on the back of Floyd's neck and three others charged with aiding and abetting.
There were calls for Breonna Taylor, the Louisville EMT who was fatally shot eight times in her bed in March.
Then there were calls of “Justice for Bernardo,” referring to Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal, the Salt Lake City man who was shot and killed by police while running away. In footage from a body camera on an officer, more than 20 shots can be heard. Salt Lake police recently released body camera footage that shows the death of Palacios-Carbajal, but family and friends who addressed the crowd at a memorial for him at 300 West and 900 South say that release doesn’t go far enough.
They say they want all of the footage released from the four officers who responded to the call, as well as names and identities of those officers.
They won’t stop fighting until they feel justice is served, said Lorena Burciaga, who spoke on behalf of Palacios-Carbajal’s friends and family.
“Nobody is alone now,” said Burciaga to the crowd, switching between English and her native Spanish. “We are all working together."
“Everybody deserves respect.”
Palacios-Carbajal could’ve been anybody, family and friends said. Indeed, he was just like a number of names read to the crowd, like Floyd, Taylor, Darrien Hunt of Saratoga Springs and Riche Santiago of Salt Lake City, who was killed by police after pointing a gun at them and firing twice.
They’re all different, but they all have at least one thing in common: they all died in situations involving police officers.
Hundreds of names. One message.
Enough is enough, Burciaga said. No más.
“Every day, we need to stay together,” she told the crowd. “Everybody will know what happened in Utah.”
