Two town residents have organized a peaceful protest of racism and police brutality against black people for Saturday.
A protest in support of Black Lives Matter in New Canaan from the summer of 2020. Credit: Fredda Gordon
Starting at 12 p.m., the protest in support of Black Lives Matter will include a march from Mead Park to Town Hall, and speakers, according to New Canaan resident Lauren Kranzlin. The Sept. 12 protest will be the third in New Canaan that Kranzlin has helped organize since June. Based on past attendance, she said she expects 20 to 30 people to come.
“I wanted to do something in New Canaan because I’ve been researching New Canaan for a while now, looking into town budgets, attending Town Council meetings and even before the Connecticut ‘Police Accountability’ bill was passed, we felt work needed to be done,” she said. “Right now our primary goals are to establish civilian review boards in New Canaan and to see if we can cut down on the budget overall and increase the Health and Human Services [Department] budget.”
Kranzlin organized the protest with town resident and New Canaan High School graduate Maria Altamura, she said.
In the wake of the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, New Canaan held a large peaceful protest, and the Board of Education drafted new district goals on equity diversity and inclusion.
Kranzlin said that although “obviously we have not had any police shootings in New Canaan that have resulted in the deaths of black people,” still “there is a lot of discrimination and racial profiling going on.”
Police have been notified about the planned protest for Saturday, she said.