Hunter
06/23/20
Iowa City protesters joined like-minded groups across the state in support of Des Moines Black Lives Matter Monday night.
After a short march in Iowa City that organizers previously announced would be heading out to Interstate 80, the group instead headed to Washington, Iowa, where they said Governor Kim Reynolds was staying in a hotel.
The Daily Iowan reports that the Iowa Freedom Riders posted on their Instagram account that those that joined them Monday night should expect police presence, but said that announcement was a planned decoy to prompt police to waste time and resources.
The on-ramp to I-80 at Dubuque Street was closed off, and State Patrol cars were parked at the exit.
The Iowa Freedom Riders have focused their attention on the governor after the Iowa City City Council addressed their local demands. Live video on the IFR Instagram page shows protesters being met with a line of police outside the hotel in Washington where they said Governor Reynolds was staying.
They repeated the demands of Des Moines Black Lives Matter, which include decriminalization of marijuana, reduction of probation length for ex-convicts and no testing for marijuana of those ex-convicts, and an immediate executive order from Reynolds reinstating the voting rights of felons who have served their sentences.
The DI says protesters laid down on the ground for several minutes in silence, and left the area after State Patrol officers read a dispersal order.