SPRINGFIELD - Massachusetts State Senator Eric Lesser attended the Black Lives Matter protests in Springfield on Wednesday and says now it's time for the state to act.

Hundreds attended the protest which was started by high school students. Lesser says there are a lot of serious issues that come up again and again, not just in Minneapolis or Springfield, but in all communities. He says hopefully this situation will shake the consciousness of people to encourage more urgent changes to be made.

"You know the stories of hearing young people, 16-, 17-,18-years-old, very clearly very conscientious, very motivated young people, talk about their experiences of not feeling safe around police, should really alarm everyone," said Lesser. 

The march started at Central High School and went to the police department on Pearl Street. Lesser marched the entire three miles with protesters and wanted to let them know their voices were heard.

"We had a lot of great conversation, people came up, introduced themselves, shared their stories and we chatted and I learned a lot doing that," he said.

Lesser says there are a lot of good ideas and plans at the state level. He said there is an entire caucus made up of Latino and Black elected officials who put out ten point plan of specific concrete recommendations work to implement.

Lesser said, "We are now powerless," adding that laws can be changed and programs can be put in place to help protect people of race against police brutality.

"We know this has been an issue for a long time and there has been efforts to change it for a long time," Lesser said. "We did do a major criminal justice reform bill in Massachusetts about two years ago and we are still in the process of implementing that."

Lesser says he had a call with other members of the Senate and talked about what can be done moving forward.

"Some of the things that were brought up is the importance of independent oversight, the importance of independent investigations,limits on certain tactics, like for example limits on choke holds," he said.

He says he would like to see the legislation be more urgent and will continue to listening to the people. 

"If theres one potentially bright thing that can come from these tragedies we see is that there can be positive change in the future," Lesser said.

Lesser added these protests, peaceful, but pointed is an American right and nothing has changed without them, so he will continue to support the cause.