HOWELL, Mich. — Thursday evening, dozens of protesters gathered in downtown Howell for the Black Lives Matter Movement, George Floyd and to stand against police brutality.
Protesters started showing up in downtown Howell around 10 a.m. And planned to end the protest at 8 p.m.
But decided to end an hour earlier after a man waved a gun at them during the protest.
Howell Police say a white man was arrested for flashing a gun at the protest.
Throughout the evening Police say the protest remained peaceful.
Protesters say they're there to express their freedom to demonstrate even though, according to the protesters, the Livingston County Sheriff asked them to refrain from going out.
Protester Harley Wheeler told Fox 47 she wants people to know Howell is a safe place for the Black Lives Matter movement.
"Howell does have a bad history and I think we can change that I think our first step to changing that was when we stopped a KKK meeting from happening on these same court steps our town came together 23 thousand strong to stop that from happening and this is our way of continuing that same stance that happened back then," said Wheeler.
Even bystanders like Kevin Doak say they want to help support the efforts to help end police brutality.
"I want to support the effort this has been an interest of mine for a long time, but we've hit a flash point in the country and this is more important than ever that we get a handle on the policing situation for everybody but especially for black and brown people," said Doak.
The protests even received the support of Howell's Deputy Chief Mike Dunn.
"Our biggest thing is we want everybody up here to be able to express all their first amendment rights that's, I mean, we want them up here we want them do what they want they want to do the biggest issue is trying to do it at the right time because what they're trying to pass along with everything that's going on right now that's just it's a tough time," said Dunn.
However, some local residents who watched the protest nearby said they don't agree with the idea of hosting protests in the city.
"I think it's ridiculous that they're coming at our town when we haven't had the KKK in our town for like 30 years," said Christy Buker.
"It has caused a commotion and we would honestly like to see this and the world that we've been living in for the last three months go back to normal this isn't the way we want to see our world," said Howell Resident, Rebecca.
Our crew there says there's been a lot of honking in support from cars driving by.
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