The sounds of "Our lives matter, Lima lives matter" echoed the streets of south Lima as a group walked together in peaceful protest of the black-on-black crime that takes place here in Lima. The coordinator of the event, Ta'lor Jackson, wanted their voices to be heard - but not to be misunderstood.
"Too often you get the 'Black Lives Matter' mantra out here and people put a bad name to that and automatically assume violence and riots, and that's not what we're here for. Nobody's going to listen to you when you're rioting and when you're fighting; you have to come out and give respect to receive respect. Nobody's going to respect you if you don't respect yourself first and foremost," said Jackson.
The group found it important that something was done locally before trying to tackle the same issues that are happening nationally.
"You can't be effective nationally if you're not going to be effective locally. We wanted to get together to make a difference here with our community and then we can go from there and say, 'Look what we did here in Lima, this is working, so why don't you try this,'" said Ahmad Houston, who helped organize the event.
But it was the fact that nothing like this was being done for Lima that inspired Ta'lor to bring together this peaceful protest together in the first place, and create an opportunity for discussion.
"We are not here to fight, we are not here to riot - we are just here speak and let our voices be heard today," Jackson said.
At the end of the day, this peaceful protest allowed one group to say what they believe - and that might have inspired others to do the same.
