Law enforcement officials across the country are preparing for a series of nationwide rallies held in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement called “Day of Rage”. One of those rallies is planned tonight at the Salt Lake Community College Redwood Road campus.
Last week, a video was posted to Youtube by TheAnonMessage, which claims to be part of the faceless, hacktivist group Anonymous. The voice calls for a collective “Day of Rage”, focused on civil disobedience and the right to protest.
“We are grieving for the lost lives that were taken by the hands of a corrupted authority,” the voice says. “We must stress the importance of staying non-violent. Your local 7-11 or Dollar Tree did not cause the deaths of these young men. We condemn every form of rioting.”
The organizer provided a list of nearly 40 cities where protests are scheduled to take place. The list includes Baltimore, Dallas and New Orleans. The Anonymous Twitter account @YourAnonNews tweeted earlier this week, there is no such thing as an “Anonymous Day of Rage” and that the person who posted the video isn’t a credible source. But law enforcement officials in cities like Dallas, where last week five police officers were shot and killed by a sniper, are on alert.
Joy Tlou is a spokesperson for Salt Lake Community College. He says the Utah Highway Patrol will be monitoring the protest at the campus in Taylorsville.
“They have been coordinating with Taylorsville City Police and Unified Police Departments and other agencies to make sure that we have a safe environment,” Tlou says.
TheAnonMessage has organized protests at the Redwood campus in the past, specifically in 2014 following the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
