Cottonwood Heights • A pair of rallies in Cottonwood Heights drew one group calling for police reform and another voicing support for law enforcement on Monday.
There were a few verbal arguments between members of the two groups, but overall the evening remained peaceful, KUTV reported.
More than 100 demonstrators calling themselves “Cottonwood Heights Citizens for Law Enforcement and Peace Officers” held their rally right before the reform demonstration. They handed out leaflets advocating against cutting police funding. They said improvements are possible “in an environment where police are not vilified because of the bad acts of a few over-aggressive officers.”
Another group of protesters called for police reform, including a woman whose son was killed by police after holding up a store with a BB gun. Tiffany James said the 19-year-old struggled with addiction after an injury got him hooked on opioids before he was shot in the back by an officer in 2018.
James said she is not “anti-police,” but “anti-police brutality.” Other pro-reform organizers said they want police to wear body cameras that are always on, and see chokeholds banned.
Protesters around the world and in Utah have rallied against police brutality and racism for more than two weeks after the death of George Floyd, a black man held in a neckhold by police in Minneapolis.
