A planned protest to shut down parts of I-490 in Rochester was canceled late Friday afternoon. It had been organized by the same group, Save Rochester-Black Lives Matter, that organized a protest that did close part of the highway last weekend.
The main organizer, who goes by just his first name, Mikey, indicated he was concerned police would not be shutting down parts of the roads to keep his protesters safe.
CITY Newspaper reporter Gino Fanelli says the group still wants to do future protests.
“He decided not to do the protest today but said that there’s another one planned very soon," Fanelli said. "For future ones he is not going to publicize them any more, they’re going to be done, presumably through Facebook groups. He said he was going to be using social media, but it wouldn’t be publicly so he likely has some kind of private Facebook groups or some social media groups that he’s using to organize the people but he did not clarify when the next one’s going to be or where.”
Fanelli says that Mikey indicated the demonstrators might be interested in having future protests impact the Rochester airport or the Center City.
The protest planned for the expressway on Friday was planned by a different group than the one that has organized some of recent protests at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Those have been organized by Free The People Roc.
