WESTFIELD- A Westfield man is organizing a convoy in support of police officers Saturday morning in light of the George Floyd protests and the Black Lives Matter movement that has dominated headlines over the past two months.
Brian LaBranche, a truck driver that lives in Westfield organized the “Back the Blue” convoy because he wanted to show support for “good” police officers as protesters call for justice against police brutality across the country.
“With all the stuff going on nowadays people are acting negatively towards good cops as well as bad cops,” said LaBranche, “I don’t want all of the good cops to be grouped together with the bad ones.”
The convoy will begin with a rally at 10 a.m. Saturday on the Park Square Green. At 11 a.m., they will leave and drive to the police departments of Southwick, Agawam, West Springfield, and back to the green in Westfield.
LaBranche said the convoy is not meant to be associated with the “Blue Lives Matter” movement, which has risen as a direct counter-movement to Black Lives Matter.
“We’re just trying to give support to the police. We don’t want to be a part of the ‘movement’ of Blue Lives Matter,” said LaBranche.
LaBranche said that as of Wednesday evening at least 90 people had said they would attend the event Saturday.
The convoy was originally going to begin in Russell, but that is no longer the case.
