'Somers March For Black Lives' Travels Down Main Street

SOMERS, CT — For the second time in six weeks, a group of protesters made their opinions known on Main Street in Somers. Unlike the June 8 rally, in which several hundred people congregated in and near Town Hall, Wednesday's event was a march to the town center from nearly two and a half miles away.

A group of about 40 people, called Somers Advocates For Social Justice, gathered at Mill Pond Park in Somersville, departing at 5 p.m. for a march up School Street, then east on Route 190 to the town hall. Led by a Somers police SUV and state police motorcycle, most of the walkers carried signs protesting racism and police brutality in towns and cities across America, a movement sparked by the recent death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

The march was organized by group founders Giselle Genece, Molly Rockett and Emily Shimanski.

"After the incident with George Floyd, I decided to take action," Genece said. "I put a note on Facebook saying if anyone knows anybody that's protesting, I want to be there to support. Molly Rockett responded and said, why not organize one for yourself. Word spread and it turned out the three of us ended up being the organizers. Most of our organizers are young college and high school kids, and we basically want to do something about not only police brutality - because some people argue there isn't police brutality in Somers so why are we doing this. I say there isn't police brutality in Somers yet, but there could be. We can't wait for another George Floyd incident to happen to really begin to change the laws and the culture in the town. We decided to form this committee, not only against police brutality, but against institutional racism in he town, in the schools, everywhere."

Rockett said she grew up in town, as part of a third generation of residents.

"We see the racism here every day," she said. "We see it in the school system, in our community spaces, on the roads. For me, it was time to take a stand, be vocal and visible, and stand against racism in Somers. I think people have this idea that there's no racism here, that we're just this quaint little town, and that's wrong."

"I found Giselle and Molly doing the work that I wanted to do, so I grouped with them and we organized the first protest in the center of town, then worked with the group to organize the march today," Shimasnki said. "This is the start of our ways to acknowledge what's happening in Somers and in our nation, and to speak out against it."

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