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SALT LAKE CITY — The organizers behind a controversial country music concert and anti-lockdown protests are staging a rally in support of Utah law enforcement Saturday evening in downtown Salt Lake City.
Utah Business Revival, headed by former Salt Lake City police officer Eric Moutsos, will hold the “Blue Rally” beginning at 5 p.m. at 451 S. State St. Attendees are asked to wear blue to the event, which, as with earlier group rallies, also aims to support local businesses and the continued reopening of the state.
“The goal is to have thousands of people from all walks of life join us in solidarity as we show our overwhelming support for law enforcement,” Moutsos said on Facebook this week. He invited Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Police Chief Mike Brown to attend.
Moutsos told KSL.com he supports certain police reforms but disagrees with calls to defund or abolish the police. Specifically, he said revenue-generating ticket quotas for officers encourages more police interactions and confrontations.
"'Proactive policing,' in my opinion, causes more harm than good," Moutsos said. "When you are pushing your officers to hit a certain amount of numbers — when I was on the motorcycle unit, we had to get 20 tickets a day. And they do that for funding."
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“We felt like as Black people, it was our duty to celebrate the liberation of our people."He said putting white officers in minority neighborhoods with number goals perpetuates a feeling of harassment in the community. "What do you think the minority neighborhood's going to think?" he said. "They're going to automatically think it's racism."
Moutsos said he never encountered racist rhetoric from officers while on the Salt Lake City force. "In seven years, I never one time, on the front line or behind the scenes, I never heard a whisper of any form of racism."
The Blue Rally comes after weeks of protests against police brutality in Utah and across the nation and world, triggered primarily by the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd at the hands of police. While one such rally resulted in vandalism and property damage, the vast majority have been peaceful.
While protesters have held a wide variety of beliefs and opinions, a common theme of the protests has been a call to reduce funding for police departments. The Salt Lake City Council voted this week to move about $5.3 million in police funds into an account the council can more directly control, with input from a new committee on equitable policing.
On Thursday, the Utah Legislature explicitly banned the knee-on-neck hold seen used on Floyd in Minnesota, pending the governor's signature.
Moutsos said his intent is to show a "silent majority" still supports Utah law enforcement.
"These things need to be addressed," he said. "But we're doing it the wrong way. Just like we did COVID the wrong way, we're doing this the wrong way."
A counterprotest is also planned for Washington Square Park at the same time, with organizers continuing calls to defund the police. The event's Facebook page says the Blue Rally wants "to reinforce the racist policing system."
"Please join us to show that we will not tolerate the proliferation of a system that perpetuates racism," it says.
The counterprotest is hosted by Armored Doves, Insurgence TV and the Salt Lake Equal Rights Movement, according to the Facebook event.
