Under curfew, downtown Raleigh protests begin peacefully but end with arrests, vandalism
While Raleigh Police and demonstrators prepared for Saturday protests under an 11 p.m. curfew, downtown business owners crossed their fingers that things stayed peaceful.
At least earlier in the day, they got their wish.
A group of social justice organizations held what they called a Rally Against Corruption, with speakers on Fayetteville Street facing the Wake County Courthouse as they talked. About 100 people gathered in the middle of the closed-off street, many wearing red “Emancipate NC” shirts. Police presence was minimal.
But at a second protest led by another group, police started making arrests around 10 p.m. when people began breaking windows and throwing fireworks at police. “This is now an unlawful assembly,” Raleigh Police tweeted.
Damaged property included smashed windows at Beasley’s on Wilmington Street and Bida Manda restaurant on Blount Street, glass doors at One City Plaza on Fayetteville Street, along with grafitti at Sitti restaurant on Wilmington, and multiple trash can fires.
Several staff members were cleaning up damage at Beasley’s just after 10:30 p.m. Saturday. They knocked broken glass from the windows, swept up shards on the ground and put up wooden boards
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Workers also put up fresh boards at Pour House, Bida Manda and Brewery Bhavana on Blount Street. At Brewery Bhavana, workers stood on stepladders and painted the boards white.
The two events in downtown Raleigh on Saturday were held to protest the decision by a Kentucky grand jury to clear three Louisville police officers of criminal wrongdoing in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor.
The protest that began shortly after sunset at Nash Square was organized by Durham BURN, a group that also held a protest in Durham on Wednesday when more than a dozen buildings were vandalized.
After that rally, Durham Mayor Steve Schewel told a News & Observer reporter that the vandals were white. “This is an attempt to co-opt a racial justice movement,” he said.
At Saturday’s event in Raleigh, many of the 150 participants gathered at Nash Square were white, and most were wearing black. Organizers urged people to put their cell phones away. They also used umbrellas to block journalists and others from taking photos.
Organizers also said the night would be dedicated to Black women, Black queer people and Black trans people. As an organizer spoke, someone lit sage sticks and walked in a circle around the group.
The group started marching at about 8:15 with a chant of “Black Lives Matter.” At the same time, someone lit a handheld American flag in fire and held it aloft in the middle of the square.
While few police were visible at Nash Square, dozens of officers gathered near the Wake County Justice Center and courthouse.
About an hour into the protest, Raleigh police tweeted that protesters were “throwing water bottles at officers” and that one person pointed a laser at officers. As the group moved past the police station, they chanted, “Every city, every town, burn the precinct to the ground” — which Smash Racism Raleigh tweeted was a “preemptive measure to falsely justify collective punishment that RPD may intend to inflict on peaceful protesters.”
Curfew announced
In advance of the protests, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin announced a curfew would be imposed from 11 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday. Baldwin said that the curfew would allow protesters the right to assemble while still helping to protect area residents and business owners.
Seth Cameron, who lives on Wilmington Street, welcomes the curfew after having been beaten up and robbed at one of the earlier protests this spring, he said.
Cameron said that while he’s not a “big fan” of aggressive police tactics, “I’m also not a big fan of violent protests. So as long as it stays peaceful it’s cool.”
Baldwin said the city learned lessons earlier this summer about setting curfews. Josh Breed, owner of The Vault, a sports apparel store on Fayetteville Street, said the lessons came too late for many businesses affected by earlier vandalism.
“The curfew will help,” Breed said. “It’s just the first time, the mayor didn’t enact it until two days too late.”
Protest in Alamance County
Simultaneously in Alamance County, about 300 supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement gathered in front of a Planet Fitness in Graham on Saturday evening and marched toward Courthouse Square, where a Confederate monument sits in front of the historic courthouse.
At this rally, unlike Raleigh’s, counterprotesters were visible and vocal. As the BLM marchers moved up South Main Street, escorted by city police, a handful of white people raised their phones to record the march and chanted, “Trump!”
A group of sheriff’s deputies stood around a military-style vehicle, holding batons.
The demonstrators, carrying flags and signs that said Black Lives Matter, circled the courthouse square, ushered across the crosswalks by law enforcement. A group of about two dozen supporters of the Confederate monument stood against metal gates near the courthouse, recording the marchers on their cell phones.
The rally was winding down around 8:30 p.m. At least seven people were arrested, according to a press release from the Graham police department.
Business owners prepared
In Raleigh, a number of area businesses boarded up their windows in advance of the Saturday protest.
Amber Echevarria, co-owner of Munjo Munjo, a design shop on Wilmington Street, came to the business Saturday to find that the property owner had boarded up the windows.
“It feels to me like when we board up two days ahead of time, that it just feels we’re not inviting war, but it’s like ‘you want a war, we’re going to prepare for it,’” Echevarria said in an interview Saturday with The News & Observer.
Some protests around the country over the grand jury decision have resulted in vandalism and violence, including damage to property Wednesday in downtown Durham, the News & Observer previously reported. During the protest, the police headquarters’ windows were spray-painted with “revenge” and “burn it down” and several windows were broken at businesses.
The new round of protests comes as many downtown Raleigh businesses are still struggling to deal with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a survey of over 200 small business owners conducted by Shop Local Raleigh, fewer than a third of small business owners believe their business will survive the pandemic, the News & Observer previously reported. Over half responded that they were negatively impacted by damage following the protests, too.
Series of protests
Raleigh and other cities have seen a series of protests since the spring over the treatment of Black people by white police officers. Many of the protests have been peaceful.
But the downtown Raleigh protests during the weekend of May 30 over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police resulted in more than 70 incidents of property damage, The News & Observer reported.
Breed complained that the periodic protests are hurting businesses. He’s not boarding up his business, like the neighboring North State Bank, but Breed said he planned to stay at the store all night to try to guard his property.
“The roads being blocked off, that part is getting old,” Breed said. “The plywood is getting old. Nobody wants to come down here during this. Who wants to come down here and spend any money?”
But Echevarria and Jaime Radar, co-owner of Munjo Munjo, said they understand the reasons for the protests even as they hope that businesses aren’t damaged again.
“I’m tired of this,” Echevarria said of the boarded-up windows. “But at the same, I’m also tired of all my Black friends having to be worried if they’re driving down the street.”
This story was originally published September 26, 2020 at 3:31 PM.
