AUBURN — The second racial justice rally in as many days in the Twin Cities went off Monday with plenty of honked horns but no one blocking traffic, no violence and no arrests.

About 30 people occupied the corner of Court and Main streets in Auburn on Monday to call attention to racial violence around the nation.

With signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and “White Families for Black Lives,” they urged drivers on Longley Bridge to honk their horns in support.

Monday’s rally was the most recent in a series of rallies Central Maine Showing Up for Justice has scheduled along the Longley Bridge on the fourth Monday of each month since January.

“We have been out every month, even in the winter,” said Jane Pentheny of Poland. “We are a diverse nation and we have to support each other.”

Many of the participants brought their children, making it apparent it was not going to be a rowdy affair.

“People may project their fears onto us, but we had talked to the police,” Bonnie Shulman of Auburn said. “The message that we’ve been saying all along was that this was going the way it always has.”

Organizers said Monday’s rally was bolstered by a racial justice rally and march Sunday night around downtown Lewiston-Auburn. An estimated 175 people participated in that rally, which started and ended at Lewiston’s Simard-Payne Memorial Park.

Both events drew protesters. Courtney Brooks of 143 Mill St. in Auburn joined the Rev. Doug Taylor of Lewiston across the street from the rally with signs that read “All Lives Matter.”

“All lives matter, in my opinion,” Brooks said. “Cops, whites, blacks, Mexicans, everybody. They all matter. And there is no racial tension in Lewiston-Auburn now. So why start some?”

But Shulman said inclusion was the point of the rally.

“We might be talking specifically about black lives now, but that doesn’t mean that other lives don’t matter,” Shulman said. “The point is, violence does not solve anything. Police officers get shot in the same context as black lives.”

Police officers from Auburn and the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department parked across the street in Great Falls Plaza to keep an eye on the rally. Phyllis Gamache, director of Lewiston-Auburn 911, said officers were on hand in case the rally didn’t stay peaceful.

Acting Fire Chief Geoff Low said the Fire Department deployed a boat in the Androscoggin River below Longley Bridge in case anyone fell in.

“We are just keeping an eye on what’s going on,” Gamache said. “We don’t anticipate anything happening, but it makes sense not to take chances.”

staylor@sunjournal.com