THE BUZZ
The Protests Begin May 29 A police officer in Minneapolis killed George Floyd on May 25, Memorial Day. The Charlotte demonstrations began that Friday, May 29, with clashes between protesters and police on Beatties Ford Road. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County declared a state of emergency the next night, and protesters continued to fill the streets. IN FRAME
SCENES FROM THE PROTESTS What the George Floyd demonstrations looked like in Charlotte BY LOGAN CYRUS
Council on the Streets JUNE 5 On the fifth night of protests, June 2, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police blocked off East Fourth Street at both Tryon and College streets, which left a group of demonstrators with no apparent outlet as officers used tear gas and pepper balls against them. Three days later, Mayor Vi Lyles and City Council members met in closed session, then emerged in public to announce a State Bureau of Investigation probe and a series of public forums beginning that night. Thirty-five minutes into the first forum, chants came from the crowd of hundreds: “Walk with us.” Lyles did. She and council members, including Tariq Scott Bokhari and Larken Egleston, joined the crowd in taking a knee on Fourth Street and at the spot where Justin Carr was killed during the Keith Lamont Scott protests in 2016. The SBI would later determine that protesters could have escaped, and the agency took no action against CMPD.
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Mayor Vi Lyles and City Council members Larken Egleston and Tariq Scott Bokhari join protesters in taking a knee at the site of the Fourth Street incident.
CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // SEPTEMBER 2020
