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Protestors hold a demonstration against police brutality in Pioneer Park in Provo on Friday, July 15, 2022.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Kaylee Reinitz, an organizer and member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, speaks during a protest against police brutality on Friday, July 15, 2022.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Provo City Hall, which contains the police department, is shown behind protestors holding a demonstration against police brutality in Pioneer Park in Provo on Friday, July 15, 2022.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Under the shadow of the new Provo City Hall — and the city’s police department — dozens took to the street Friday to protest police brutality.

“We believe that public scrutiny of the police is necessary to address the problems of police brutality and systemic racism,” Kelli Potter said.

Potter, an organizer and member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, helped set up the protest in Pioneer Park in response to a video filmed on July 7 showing members of the Provo Police Department restraining a man on Center Street, with one punching the man as he lays on the sidewalk.

According to Potter, the restrained person in the video is Native American and “houseless.” Despite communicating with other unhoused people in Provo, PSL has yet to locate the man. She added that he, allegedly, was restrained for harassing Evangelical proselytizers and has since been released from the custody.

Shad Lefevre, public information officer for the Provo PD, told the Daily Herald that Police Chief Fred Ross spoke to organizers ahead of Friday’s demonstration.

“Provo is supportive of people’s constitutional right to protest,” Lefevre said.

He added that the investigation into the incident is ongoing and that the department is reviewing body camera footage.

Kaylee Reinitz, another organizer and member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, addressed the crowd to share the three goals of the day’s protest.

First, Reinitiz said, is a demand that Ross fire the cops “who were involved in the brutality on July 7.” Second was a demand that Utah County Attorney David Leavitt bring charges against the police officers for aggravated assault.

“Any ordinary person would be charged for the same. David Leavitt, you better charge,” she said.

Third is the group’s largest long-term goal — the creation of a community review board with no connection to the police department. According to Reinitz, current practices make it “almost impossible” for community members to acquire and review information regarding the actions of the police department.

Standing to the side of the speakers was a protestor holding a sign listing a handful of names of people killed or injured by police across the country, from Tamir Rice and Michael Brown to Amadou Diallo and Rodney King. Other signs criticized policing as a whole and more drew attention to individual victims of police brutality, including Jayland Walker, who was shot an estimated 46 times by police officers in Akron, Ohio, and Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal, a Salt Lake City resident killed in 2020

Cedric Cody, a Heber resident and former member of the U.S. Army, decided to join the protest after watching the video for himself.

“Only a coward hits on a person who’s already handcuffed,” he said. “It’s very clear, especially from the statistic disproportions between white people affected by police brutality and minority communities. It just doesn’t line up with the ‘American ideals.'”

Cody said that the “system,” or society as a whole, needs to be adjusted based on his time both in the Army and having been in prison.

In addition to the specific incident on Center Street, organizers reiterated the mission of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, discussing the country’s incarceration rates, economic issues and housing struggles.

Throughout the evening, only one counter-protestor made themselves known, briefly shouting back and forth with a protestor.

While standing on the corner of 500 West and Center Street, chants continued with the sporadic car honks both in support and opposition.