Black Lives Matter protest planned for Kettering

A Black Lives Matter protest will take place in Kettering next week.

Protests have taken place across the country after George Floyd died when a police officer restrained him with his knee for almost nine minutes in Minneapolis in America.

Earlier this week people made their voices heard in Northampton and a protest has also been planned for Kettering on Friday (June 12) at 1pm.

It was planned to take place outside Kettering Council's offices but is now proposed to take place in the Meadow Road park.

One of the organisers, 17-year-old Mia Rose, said: "It's clear racism is an issue here. People think it does not happen in the UK but it's just as big an issue here as it is across the world."

The hour-long protest will see speeches, chanting and people taking the knee at the end before a moment of silence.

Protests elsewhere have faced a backlash because people were not adhering to coronavirus social distancing guidelines.

Mia, a sixth former at Kettering Buccleuch Academy, said they want to make sure the Kettering protest is safe.

She said: "A lot of the backlash so far has been about social distancing and we want the protests to be safe.

"We will be putting in as many social distancing measures as possible."

Mia said her friends have suffered racial abuse and she was "outraged" by the death of George Floyd, before feeling "sad for everybody in the USA who has to put up with this".

So far more than 600 people have said they are either going to the Kettering protest or are interested in going on the Facebook event.

Mia added: "I've been absolutely blown away by the support so far."

In America police officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder over George Floyd's death. Three more officers are to be charged with aiding and abetting murder.