Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On Monday, January 16, the Eureka Police Department and Eureka Branch of the NAACP will co-sponsor a march, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday. During Dr. King’s time, he led a number of marches to peacefully highlight issues that the nation was facing, giving an opportunity for people from various walks of life to demonstrate solidarity. People were able to speak, sing, cry and shout, until they felt their voices were heard, understood and valued.

We face a time in our nation unlike any in recent memory. Numerous groups have taken Dr. King’s message around peaceful protest to promote the issues nearest and dearest to them. Whether the concerns surround faith, freedom, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, poverty, environment or educational reform, we stand together, united as one Eureka and one Humboldt County.

A unified Humboldt is an issue that Chief Andy Mills of the Eureka Police Department and Liz Smith, President of the Eureka Branch of the NAACP, are both passionate about. Building off of the painful lessons and energy from all communities, EPD and the NAACP desire to foster better interaction and engagement with communities of color, by standing shoulder to shoulder at a time when many feel estranged from their fellow countrymen and those who serve them. Often people of color feel marginalized, singled out and discriminated against. We seek to heal community fractures as we stand together.

President Smith, Chief Mills and Donn Peterson, Chief of Police [at] Humboldt State University and President of the Law Enforcement Chiefs Association of Humboldt County, are excited to sponsor and participate in this march and invite all members of the community to join. The march will commence at the Eureka Police Department Headquarters, 604 C Street, at 11 a.m. on Monday, January 16, 2017 and will conclude at the Adorni Center, 1011 Waterfront Drive, where the Eureka Branch of the NAACP will then host their annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. Join us!

As Dr. King said, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”