Starkville city leaders discuss plans for citizen protest

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Protests and demonstrations have been happening across the country and across the state.

There will be one in Starkville on Saturday.

Starkville Police Chief Mark Ballard said officers would go through mandatory constitutional training. That meant meant officers would cover how to respond to large crowds, protection of the public, and knowing the rights of citizens.

The chief said these measures would be taken very seriously as 35-40 officers would be present.

Also, before the protest could take place, it had to be approved with a permit.

“Well normally, we have a permitting process and right now, the times are a little different than usual because someone who gets a special event permitted, whether it’s a parade, or a march, or a food event downtown or something like that.  Normally, they’ll have to get insurance and let us know what the root is and how many people they expect to give us an idea of what we’ll need as city. We’ll closing off downtown will be enough to get people through. We are just allowing them the opportunity to make their way through intersections and be safe in doing,” said Spruill.

As for city workers, Mayor Spruill said she was not requiring the sanitation department to pick-up after the protest.

She planned to clean sidewalks herself with the help of volunteers.