Hundreds of protesters gathered and marched through Downtown La Crosse on Saturday evening, a mostly peaceful night, aside from an incident where Mayor Tim Kabat’s wife was pepper-sprayed by an onlooker.

Christy Kabat was part of the march Saturday evening when she got into an altercation with a driver who was stopped in the street by the protest, according to Mayor Kabat.

The driver “came very close” to hitting her and nearby protesters, said the mayor, who wasn’t at the protests himself. When Christy reminded the driver that they were protesting “peacefully,” he then sprayed her with pepper spray or mace.

“She’s pretty shook up,” Mayor Kabat said. “She feels responsible because she’s like, ‘Well, I should have just let the jerk drive away.’”

“I understand people have different opinions,” he said, “I just can’t believe somebody would unload their either mace or pepper spray right there.”

Police are investigating the incident.

This was the city’s second night of protests against the killing of George Floyd, and it brought a crowd of nearly 300 people of different races, ages, genders and backgrounds.

The group met at Powell Park at Jackson Street and West Avenue, where they would eventually march through the city’s downtown, to City Hall and back, occupying the streets and stopping traffic along the way.

La Crosse joined other cities around the country, state and Midwest that also saw protests last week and through the weekend, some of them bringing destruction.

In Wisconsin, Madison protesters on Saturday night were tear gassed as riots grew from its event and a police car was set on fire in its downtown, and in Milwaukee, a police officer was shot during its weekend protests.

“I think the police have done an excellent job of just being there in case people need them, but really just let folks honor George Floyd, and of course demand justice,” Mayor Kabat said of La Crosse’s events. “And they did that very peacefully the last two nights.”

“It was beautiful,” said Stevie Sam of the Friday night march as he set out water for Saturday’s event.

“We definitely blocked off some streets, and probably made a lot of people upset by blocking traffic and stuff like that,” he said. “Like you see it on their faces when you walk through. But it’s OK because we’re out here fighting for a cause.”

Anybody’s backyard

Chants rang throughout the group of protesters, repeating George Floyd’s name and shouting things like “hands up, don’t shoot.”

The killing of Floyd in Minneapolis last week was said to be racially motivated and erupted protests and riots in the city through the weekend, as officials called in armed forces to contain the events.

And though the tragic event happened two and a half hours from La Crosse, members of the community said they feel the pain of it, even here.

“Obviously it shows that it doesn’t have to happen in your own backyard for you to feel some type of emotion. Remorse, anger, sad or whatever you feel for you to act out on it,” Sam said.

“The fact that we’re here in La Crosse, two and a half hours (away), still protesting something that’s not happening in our own neighborhood is beautiful in itself,” he said.

“Seeing a lot of people come together at a time like this, it’s a really big thing,” said Paris Moore. “Especially for our La Crosse community. Especially with all the diversity here.”

Moore has lived in La Crosse for 10 years, but grew up in Arizona where his community regularly formed similar movements like this one. He said he felt a lot of sadness over the events, but felt “upbeat” about the diverse group of people at Saturday’s protest, especially the young participants.

“Because it could have happened anywhere. But even though we weren’t there, it affects us here. So seeing everybody affected by this and wanting to come together,” he said, “it’s pretty big.”

Moore marched with his children and wife, pulling a wagon with their things behind him, and along the route waved to his mom, who watched from her porch as his kids yelled out, “Hi Granny,” while they marched.

Pearlie Moore, 76, moved to La Crosse three years ago. She said she grew up in Mississippi, and though she said she’d never marched in any protests, she’d been fighting for civil rights her whole life.

“I’ve been in it,” she said through tears, waving to her son and grandkids,” all 76 years.”

A city of allies

“Not to be disrespectful, but I see a lot of white people. Thank you,” one organizer said to the crowd, calling them his brothers and sisters.

The group took several nine-minute moments of silence — the amount of time Floyd was restrained by police with a knee on his neck — during their protest, once behind La Crosse’s City Hall, knelt down with fists raised in the air.

One non-black protester spoke to the crowd saying how long the nine minutes felt.

“I can’t even begin to imagine,” he said, trying to put himself in Floyd’s shoes.

For Val German, the weekend’s protests gave him a sense of belonging.

“I’m not going to lie,” he said, “when I first came out here ... I promise you I felt so uncomfortable being who I was.”

German was helping his friend Sam set out the water for the other protesters. The pair each moved to the area from other parts of the country when they were teens, but German said this was the first time he felt like it was home.

“Seeing all the different types of people standing up for a specific cause, it kind of brings comfort knowing, maybe this city, they are accepting, of not only who we are, but as well as what happens outside of our own community,” German said.

“So it’s beautiful to see people of different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, you name it. They’re all here together for one cause,” he said, “It honestly makes you feel like, OK, I can call this place home.”