KANKAKEE — Jim Rowe is the Kankakee County State’s Attorney, and he is white. He is also embarrassed, frustrated and more than a little angry.

Rowe expressed those feelings before a crowd of about 650 people at the Tuesday evening Community Rally at the Kankakee County Fairgrounds regarding racism and police abuse.

Rowe’s embarrassment, frustration and anger come by the response of those in the white community who “spew racist ignorance and hate” in the aftermath of the George Floyd arrest and subsequent death at the hands of a Minneapolis, Minn., police officer.

“The response to Black Lives Matter is not All Lives Matter. Let’s be honest. Have all lives really ever mattered in the minds of those who say that?” Rowe asked near the conclusion of the nearly 90-minute rally. “Did all lives matter in our country when slaves were inhumanely transported like livestock in the bottom of ships? Did all lives matter when they were lynched by the thousands at the hands of the KKK? Did all lives matter when they were attacked by dogs as they protested for the equal rights they still don’t share today?

“… Did George Floyd’s life matter when he was murdered in broad daylight, on camera, while those charged with protecting and serving watched?” he asked. “The response to Black Lives Matter is not to say ‘Well, what about black-on-black crime?’ We know the difference, we know the difference between swift and fair justice and when it is not.

“Do not be vocal about the looting, but silent about the murder. … Do not say you’re afraid of these protests and criticize their peaceful chants, but embrace the protesters of a few weeks ago on the courthouse lawn simply because they were white. … Shut up and realize that a man was murdered and there is still no justice,” he said. “When you look at the anger and the revolt and the destruction, do not forget the ‘Why?’ This stops only when the world takes the proper steps to fix the matter at hand.”

Demonstration, marches and rallies have been taking place in Kankakee County for the past several days, just as they have been around the country.

Rowe said the issue is really simple. When the public turns a blind eye to injustice and looks the other way, “we end up with this.”

“We end up with a murder in broad daylight on camera while three other police officers watched. Bad cops, bad prosecutors, racists in any profession must be fired and called out and removed from the ranks of the good men and women who protect and serve,” he said.

Several voices took to the podium on the warm, humid evening in south Kankakee.

One of those was State Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Essex. The lawmaker recalled Dr. Martin Luther King’s words which stated people fail to get along because they fear each other.

“They fear each other because they don’t know each other,” Joyce said recalling King’s words. “They don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

Two of the voices who addressed the crowd belong to a pair of 18-year-olds. One was Timothy Harris, who helped organize the peaceful marches held the Kankakee-Bradley-Bourbonnais region this weekend. The other belonged to Arriah Battiste.

The Bourbonnais young adults pressed everyone to come together because it is the only way people will survive.

“We are all one,” Battiste said. “We will keep fighting until every person gets justice.”

Harris said he was tired. Tired of what he is seeing unfold within the United States.

He pressed for all young people to step forward and let their voices be heard.

“You have the power to create the world you want to live in so create it. … I refuse to become comfortable with being mistreated. I refuse to become comfortable with unjust incarceration. I refuse to be comfortable with seeing black people dying at the hands of racist police. I refuse to be quiet. I refuse to be silenced.”

Joyce told the audience he fears for a society which still proudly carries Confederate flags and Nazi symbols pointed at the state’s governor and Chicago’s black mayor.

“We are better than this,” Joyce said. “Dr. King was exactly right: When we don’t know each other and we don’t talk with each other, we fear each other. … Let’s talk and get to know each other. It’s the only way we can truly come together to overcome hate, ignorance and division.”