Students come together to clean up after protests leave destruction in Omaha

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    OMAHA, Neb. (KETV) — Many spent Sunday morning cleaning up after windows and buildings were vandalized in both downtown Omaha and 72nd and Dodge.

“Seeing all the destruction, I thought we need to try to come together this morning,” said Codie Strese, who helped clean up damage at downtown businesses.

Several windows were smashed and vandalized after Friday and Saturday night’s protests.

Over at 72nd and Dodge Streets, a group of University of Nebraska-Omaha students were also hard at work.

“I was born and raised here, so I feel an obligation and responsibility to make sure that our community is kept right,” Kaia Phelps said.

Phelps, a senior criminal justice and black studies major, organized the cleanup with her friends.

“I believe there was a different narrative going around that Black Lives Matter started all of the throwing of bricks and pushing over police officers,” Phelps said.

Phelps said the cleanup is also a protest, though.

“We may not have signs, we may not be yelling, we may not have our fist in the air, but we are saying that, ‘We have a place here. We belong here,'” Phelps told KETV Newswatch 7.

Like many other young people, Phelps and her friends say they’re fed up by tragedies like George Floyd’s death.

“We don’t see much action and so, that’s why we’re out here, that’s why we see so many people protesting,” UNO Student Body President Jabin Moore said.

Phelps and Moore say they want to see more black leaders speak up, both across the country and in Omaha.

“We need more people to step into the forefront, and stop telling us what we can’t do and what we can do,” Phelps said.

“Not just on Facebook Live, but really helping us to mobilize and showing us what we are supposed to do in these situations,” Moore said.

The students say some people driving by gave them donations. They plan to put the money towards the James Scurlock fund. Scurlock, 22, was shot and killed during the protests in the Old Market.

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