Downtown Floyd protests draw 200
Another round of demonstrations started in City Hall on Sunday.
About 200 people stood on the corner of Orange Avenue and East South Street in front of City Hall on Sunday chanting George Floyd’s name during a peaceful protest sparked by the Minnesota man’s death.
Natalie McDonald, 23, led the crowd in chanting “Black Lives Matter,” “I can’t breathe,” and “No justice, no peace; no racist police.”
McDonald, who grew up in Jamaica, said she didn’t experience racism until she moved to the U.S. about seven years ago. She said black parents are forced to teach their children to be quiet and that their race is sometimes perceived as a sign of aggression.
McDonald, who is black, anticipates having children someday and said she doesn’t want to teach them those lessons.
“Why is it that black people have to be scared for their lives all the time?” she asked.
The informal gathering was much smaller than an organized protest in the downtown area Saturday that the Orlando Police Department announced drew 10,000 people and concluded with no arrests. As a result, Mayor Buddy Dyer said he was ending an 8 p.m. curfew for the downtown area while still maintaining a 10 p.m. curfew throughout the
city of Orlando.
Despite the threat of more storms a day after a tornado touched down in the city, spirited protesters gathered to speak out against racial injustice and police brutality.
Protests have raged in all 50 states and in other countries around world for two weeks after cameras captured Floyd pleading he could not breathe while a Minneapolis police officer, now charged with seconddegree murder, used his knee to keep the unarmed black man pinned to a street while facedown. Three other officers on the scene have been charged with aiding and abetting murder.
Orlando protest organizers highlighted local black business owners to the crowd gathered at the City Hall steps Sunday.
Kea Jefferson, owner of Klicks by Kay Photography in Apopka, said she has been taking pictures of all the protest signs, which include messages of, “All lives don’t matter until black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe” with a painting of Floyd.
Jefferson said she tells her 9-year-old and 4-year-old to “never back down because of the color of their skin.” She thanked the crowd for keeping the protest peaceful.
“We’ve got to work together. It’s going to take [all of ] us. It’s going to take law enforcement. It’s going to take government officials,” she said. “It’s going to take everybody to start moving forward, so keep this momentum.”
Antaniece Brown, 29, read a spoken word piece she wrote titled “Free America” in front of the crowd.
“I understand all lives matter, yes, but none of them matter until we truly matter,” Brown said.
She urged others to vote people into office who will write new policies that will help black Americans, adding “it’s not about Democrats or Republicans.”
Brown said she hoped for a better future for her four children at home, saying it’s scary for black parents who have to worry about their children when they go out. She referenced Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Cleveland boy shot to death by police in 2014, as an example of the harm that can come to black children.
Brown pulled up photos on her phone of her mother holding a “Free America” sign at past protests, including at one held after the death of Trayvon Martin.
“My family, this is what we do,” she said.
Another downtown protester, Orlando resident Kim Feaste, 27, sat on a bench with his 10-month-old Green monkey, Thabo.
Feaste ripped in half a blue Donald Trump 2020 flag with “Keep America Great” written on it in and used tree bark to pin it to the ground.
The gesture was self-explanatory, he said: “This is America. It’s divided.”