Peaceful Protests Planned In Owatonna This Morning [Updated]

According to a Facebook event, and an email from Owatonna Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Brad Meier to chamber members, a peaceful protest is scheduled for 11:30 this morning along Hoffman Drive in Owatonna. The protest according to the event page is "to send the message that we, as American citizens, will no longer tolerate the mistreatment or murder of innocent black people by the police."

A second peaceful protest is schedule to take place at 1pm at Jaycee Park according to another Facebook event page. The 1 pm protest is called Protesting in Peace for George Floyd you can see the event here. The 1pm protest is described on the event page as "Our March has turned into a protest! We will stay at Jaycee park and give people the chance to be heard. What happened to George Floyd was a travesty and injustices like this are seen all over the country. Come have your voices heard...sorry for all the changes to the event...circumstances kept changing! This is the plan now 100%"

The 1PM event has 15 people confirmed going and 29 interested.

The 11:30 AM  peaceful protest is stated to take place according to the event "on sidewalks and parking lots along Hoffman Drive." An image on the event page states this is a "protest against the murders of innocent black people and institutionalized racism in our country" as well as "calling out" the "casual racism in our town and community"

According to an email from Brad Meier, President/CEO of the Owatonna Chamber of Commerce to Chamber members yesterday:

"Making you aware of a planned protest that we’ve learned about for tomorrow (Sunday) in Owatonna.  The group is planning to protest on Hoffman Drive, meeting at 11:30a tomorrow.  This event was initially listed on Facebook as being hosted at the Chamber office.  The Chamber is not organizing this protest and the organizer has since removed the chamber address at our request.

We [the chamber] have spoken with the Owatonna police and they are aware the protest is being planned.  The protest is being communicated/marketed as a peaceful protest."

According to the 11:30 AM  event page, 63 people have stated they will attend the event.