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CLEVELAND, Ohio — We’ve seen protests across the country and the world with hundreds or even thousands of people gathering to make a change.

Spectrum News spoke with one protestor in Cleveland about his personal story.

“I literally could not believe my eyes, like the amount of just, just disregard for human life and how normal and to me it felt like as a black man, that it’s just so normalized. That a, to kill an unarmed black man, that they didn’t, they weren’t looking for the sign that he needed help,” said 28-year-old Cleveland resident and muralist, Isaiah Williams. He spoke about the day he saw the video of what happened to George Floyd.

“I think over time, it just like puts more and more pressure on your well-being to the point that it snaps, because I just I remember like being at work and I couldn’t even focus and like it literally kind of brought me to tears,” said Williams.

He decided to go to the protest last Saturday and recalled how peaceful it was initially.

“It just seemed like a really beautiful cause to come together, and there was that lingering idea like this could turn violent because you do have so much frustration and anger and we saw what happened in Minneapolis where the protesters were, you know, antagonized by either outside groups with a different agenda or the local police department.”

Williams said he and a friend decided to film what happened that day.

“It wasn’t just all black people and white people. It was like, pretty much every different type of, you know, race that you can imagine. I saw like pretty much Cleveland was there.”

He started to feel the tension when police stood in front of the Justice Center in riot gear.

“So, it wasn’t that crazy until they started macing people. So, I think people were maybe getting too close and they were getting frustrated and they wanted people to disperse, so they started macing people in the very front of the row.”

Williams said protesters were shouting their concerns and frustrations, flash bangs were thrown by police and tensions rose. When a police car was set on fire, he decided it was time to leave.

“There was a lot of angry people that were mad because they came there in peace. Some of them werre mad because they came in peace and it turned violent and they weren’t being heard and some were there because they wanted it to be violent. They wanted to send a message, they wanted things to get riled up.”

Williams says he thinks the protests are necessary.  If not for this uprising, he said he feels that what happened to George Floyd could have been ignored and not investigated.

“I feel like it is important that people are protesting right now. I don’t necessarily agree with all the violence and stuff, but I do think I can’t be too mad because I know that a lot of this is coming from somewhere genuine and it could be prevented. In the future, it could be prevented. If we listen to these people and voices and and make the world a better place and, and so that it feels safe and just for all.”

Williams says its important to note that he doesn’t think all police officers are bad, but he says there needs to be legislative change to the criminal justice system.

“Having, you know, systems in place and laws where you can hold, you know, police officers accountable because they’re the ones who we look to for, you know, peace, you look to them for protection and safety. So, I mean, which is all of that kind of goes hand-in-hand together. But, you know, it’s just kind of discouraging to see like the people who are trained to protect us and to be there for us are the ones that are killing us as well.”

He said he wants to see people having conversations with our youth to teach them about respect for others and issues of systemic racism moving forward because what we’re witnessing is history.

“It’s almost like a piece of, it’s almost like art, you know, how it’s just like history is happening in front of our eyes, and it’s, you know, scary and it’s uncomfortable, and it’s beautiful at the same time.”