The protestors — around 300 of them — received a lot of support in the form of honks, cheers and raised fists. Not everyone was into it, though. Some averted their eyes. Some seemed worried. One woman driving past yelled, “Get a job!” which the protesters found humorous.

The event, organized by a group of Lake Placid residents, was the latest in a series of similar protests around the world following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died as a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes.

It was a young crowd at this protest, with many high school and elementary school students attending.

Blocking traffic is often a staple of protests, and protestors on the street Thursday said they believe it is an effective way to spread a message.

“I think that we are more pissed off than you could be, waiting in traffic, about black lives being taken every day,” said Baylee Annis of Saranac Lake, a member of the High Peaks Democratic Socialists of America. “To wait in traffic for a small minute, hopefully you feel just a fraction of that anger that we feel about what’s being robbed — life.”

She said she did not see protests like this in the area when she grew up in Saranac Lake and said the young crowd was an encouragement. She hoped their message reached not only residents but tourists in town.

“There isn’t a vacation from racism,” Annis said. “It’s here, it’s all the time, and we’re not going to stand for it.”

DSA organizers circulated a petition asking the Lake Placid village board to condemn police brutality, the same as one that received around 500 signatures at the Saranac Lake rally June 2 and which led to the Saranac Lake village board resolving to “advanc(e) a police force culture that emphasizes deescalation of physical force.”