4 minute read
In Frame
The Protests Begin
May 29
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.
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.
Deputies Disperse Jail Support
June 18
The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office arrested 43 people in front of the detention center on a Saturday afternoon in June. The volunteers and activists were providing food, water, face masks, and other supplies to detainees upon release through Jail Support, an effort that began with the start of summer. Activists claimed they were providing essential, nonviolent community services; Sheriff Garry McFadden said members were blocking traffic, harassing others, and leaving urine and feces in walkways. Sheriff’s deputies carry away a Jail Support volunteer for arrest. The Sheriff’s Office said members of the group refused to obey commands to clear East Fourth Street.
(Above and left) Deputies restrained Jail Support volunteers who refused to move from their spot outside the county detention center. Sheriff Garry McFadden had asked them to relocate; when they refused, deputies began the arrests.
SCENES FROM THE PROTESTS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21
Mario Black of Million Youth March of Charlotte & Salisbury (middle) and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden (right) marched side by side to honor the victims.
The Shooting on Beatties Ford Road
JUNE 22
In the early morning hours of Monday, June 22, the third night of Juneteenth festivities, four people were killed and 10 injured in a flurry of shooting on Beatties Ford Road. Investigators later determined that 181 shots were fired; at press time, CMPD continued to investigate. “The tragedy last night does not deter us,” said Tiffany Fant of the nonprofit Sol Nation, which had organized Juneteenth events, “but further demonstrates why it’s important for us to continue to collaborate with the community, which includes the residents and businesses, to ensure we advance our community in a positive way ... We will lean in this moment to take a stand and define the future of our corridor.” A witness to the shooting returned later to pay his respects.
Demonstrations took to Beatties Ford Road in the days after the shootings.
JULY 25
Protesters and a pro-police group clashed in Marshall Park on a Saturday afternoon in July, when about 50 members of the activist group Charlotte Uprising confronted a Blue Lives Matter rally organized by Blexit North Carolina, the state branch of an organization that encourages Black people to break away from the Democratic Party. The Uprising group, which has recently provided food, water, and services to detainees in the Mecklenburg County Detention Center, approached roughly 120 attendees of the Blue Lives Matter rally; the two sides exchanged hostile words and gestures, and Antoine Thomas, one of the organizers, placed his hand on the throat of a woman with the Uprising group (left). Charlotte-Mecklenburg police forced Uprising back with pepper spray (bottom), and the rally resumed. Police made no arrests.
