Peaceful Black Lives Matter protest Leads to arrest downtown

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Black Lives Matter protest that started out at the Duval County Courthouse ended with at least one arrest.

More than 100 protesters gathered outside the Duval County Courthouse holding signs.

Fearell Blud told me she couldn’t sit back and do nothing after the recent killing of George Floyd.

“George Floyd, the CNN reporter, all of that stuff it just flooded the news and I woke up one day and I just had tears in my eyes,” Blud said.

Others held signs demanding justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Jamee Johnson.

After the protest, people started marching through the streets of Downtown Jacksonville.

A few times, they stopped traffic and JSO stepped in. At times, the march became tense when the crowd refused an officer’s orders to get out of the street.

Police even switched on their body cameras when people knelt down and blocked traffic .

Another demonstrator said one of protesters tried to instigate violence.

“Basically, he came down to the courthouse and he was like, ‘Hey, are you guys ready today? Are you guys ready to fight?’" Mikaelia Richardson said. "And we were like, ‘No,’ because we just wanted to have a peaceful protest.”

Our cameras were rolling when police took that man into custody.

On Saturday, Action News Jax showed you the aftermath of a protest that got out of hand.

Blud told me that’s not what these rallies are about, it’s about racial injustice and ending police brutality.

“We just out here just to get our point across, we’re not out here to stir up violence,” she said.

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