Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
DeSantis activates National Guard as thousands continue to protest
Thousands of people in Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach took to the streets Sunday to protest the death of George Floyd as Gov. Ron DeSantis activated the Florida National Guard.
In Fort Lauderdale, nearly 1,000 people from toddlers to 80-year-olds gathered at Huzienga Park and then west on Broward Boulevard to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. They looped back past the main jail and returned to the park.
As the crowd in Fort Lauderdale started to leave and head toward a parking garage, police launched tear gas and percussion grenades. It was unclear what prompted the police action, although some in the crowd threw water bottles at the officers.
In Miami, protesters joined a march from near AmericanAirlines Arena to the Federal Detention Center and back to near Bayside Marketplace, where there was looting on Saturday night. Some blocked an entrance ramp on Interstate 395 for a short time.
In West Palm Beach, a rally billed as “No Justice, No Peace” started at Rosemary Square and marched along Okeechobee Boulevard to South Dixie Highway. Some made their way to Interstate 95, forcing a temporary closure between Southern and Palm Beach Lakes boulevards.
Many of the protesters went to their knees to show solidarity. In Fort Lauderdale, they knelt in the street at Andrews Avenue and Southwest Second Street.
“We tell the whole wide world this is people’s territory,” they chanted. Others chanted, “I can’t breathe.”
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis has sparked outrage across the country. Officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
“I think people are restless now. We need justice, we need some sort of change in our system. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and equally so I came out to support my fellow brothers and sisters in protest to say, ‘hey, we are sick and tired of being sick and tired,’” said Jeremiah Carter, 26, of Fort Lauderdale.
DeSantis’s spokeswoman said 150 National Guardsmen were
sent to Miramar, 100 to Tampa and 150 to Camp Blanding.
“These specially trained units support law enforcement in many ways i.e. traffic & crowd control, all to preserve the peace & public safety,” spokeswoman Helen Ferre said on Twitter.
No National Guardsmen were visible at the Fort Lauderdale march, where uniformed police officers and a sheriff’s office helicopter kept watch.
Police — some in riot gear in Miami — were on the scenes in all three cities, blocking traffic and monitoring the marches. In Miami near Bayside, protesters shouted at the police, according to TV reports.
“We are gathering because we are done with the epidemic and public health crisis known as ‘police brutality,’” said Tifanny Burks, community organizer with Black Lives Matter Alliance Broward. “We are gathering to express our grief, anger and call for the divestment and defunding of local and national police departments. We want investments in things that actually uplift and keep our communities safe.”
Organizers moved the march to downtown Fort Lauderdale after Lauderhill pulled its support because of concerns the event could become chaotic and destructive.
City officials issued a statement that they felt it was in the “best interest of attendees and the surrounding community to work with the organizers to postpone the event.”
Mayor Ken Thurston said the city worked with the organizers, but officials were worried the expected crowd size had grown from 200 to more than 1,000.
“After watching the supposed peaceful protest yesterday in Miami that ended in such violence and destruction, we wanted to be certain we had all safety measures in place so the protesters would be safe along with the public,” Thurston said.
He said the city hopes to host a protest in the near future.
State Rep. Shevrin Jones, one of the event’s organizers, said he thinks the city made a mistake in postponing the protest.
“People have already texted me with very explicit language saying they are still showing up,” he said. “People are coming to express themselves, and they feel like they are being silenced.”
Mostly peaceful daytime protests Saturday descended into nighttime chaos.
A total of 44 people were arrested in Saturday’s downtown Miami protests against police violence, the Miami-Dade Police Department said.
Miami-Dade County is under a curfew starting from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and beaches won’t reopen Monday as originally planned, Mayor Carlos Gimenez said.
Rebecca Corilen, 27, of
Plantation, attended the peaceful demonstration in Fort Lauderdale. “I came to support because I come for everybody. We came for George, he deserves justice. We deserve to be treated equally,” she said.
Black Lives Matter protests have been peaceful in the past in Broward County, but tensions are higher than they have ever been, Jones said.
Broward Mayor Dale Holness said there have been “some conversations” of implementing a curfew in Broward County, but he is hoping that step won’t be needed.
“We haven’t seen any incident in Broward County that would call for that right now,” he said. “I am hoping and praying that the kinds of things I am seeing elsewhere in terms of the burning and looting doesn’t happen here in Broward County. I am hoping we can find a way to peacefully, but in a vibrant and clear way, express our disgust.”
Near the end of the Fort Lauderdale protest, a man led the crowd in a chant of “Black Lives Matter.” He then asked: “Where are we going now?” The crowd responded “Home!” and slowly started to leave.