Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Officials blame protest ‘infiltrators’
Who the outsiders are remains unknown; arrest reports show most charged are from the area
South Florida reeled from peaceful protests that turned ugly, police and city leaders blame anonymous, out-of-town “infiltrators” for instilling chaos.
They say they’re now watching social media posts, preparing for troublemakers to show up again at upcoming protests that are meant to be peaceful. On Monday, the National Guard sat in Humvees along Las Olas Boulevard as businesses boarded windows. Gov. Ron DeSantis said 700 soldiers have already been deployed in Florida.
According to city leaders, the infiltrators differ from the amicable demonstrators who show up to protests with a message. InAs stead they arrive toting fireworks, gas masks, rocks and concrete blocks. On Sunday night, their intrusion in a Fort Lauderdale protest ended with police using tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The infiltrators’ goal is to “disrupt the message of others, which is peaceful and honest — and which will hopefully bring America to a better place,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said Monday. “They came to rumble.”
But who exactly the infiltrators were remains unknown. “I
couldn’t tell you who was who,” said Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione.
In West Palm Beach, a protest also took a violent turn Sunday, resulting in looting and vandalism at the Palm Beach Outlets. Six people were arrested by the end
of the night.
Police Chief Frank Adderley said those responsible were not West Palm Beach residents but agitators from Broward and Miami-Dade. “I’m telling you what I saw,” Adderley said. “I saw people that don’t live in this city that created this problem for us yesterday.”
According to West Palm Beach Police Department arrest reports, half of the six men arrested for charges ranging from inciting a riot to aggravated assault of an officer lived in West Palm Beach. Two others had addresses listed in Deerfield Beach and Lake Worth.
After police cars burned in the streets on May 30 in Miami, County Mayor Carlos Gimenez told the news media that “professional agitators” had arrived in the county to cause trouble.
But arrest reports showed the vast majority of those arrested live within Miami-Dade.
In Fort Lauderdale, Maglione said sometimes people follow the “protest circuit” and show up from other places.
“Some because it’s for causes they believe in. Others because they are intent on causing mayhem.” However, he did not say for sure that those who spraypainted businesses and shattered windows in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday were from outside of Broward County.
Maglione described an organized protest that reached its designated end time at 6 p.m. Sunday, at which point a “newly arrived” group entered the demonstrations. Three separate groups were formed and two spread away from Huizenga Park. “At some point, our officers wound up in a confrontation,” he said.
On Sunday, a Fort Lauderdale police officer was recorded on camera shoving a female protester who was already on the ground. Officer Steven Pohorence has been relieved of duty amid an investigation into whether he broke the law.
Maglione said it was too early to say that the officer’s actions incited the crowd of protesters to damage property, but he did say the shove “could’ve added to what was going on.”
By the end of the night, some businesses had broken windows and graffiti on their exterior walls. Fort Lauderdale police officers made two arrests, both stemming from an incident that involved a business being “breached,” according to Maglione.
A spokeswoman for Broward Sheriff’s Office said that no arrests were made on Sunday by their deputies.
Trantalis said a 9 p.m. curfew put into effect on Sunday night would continue into Tuesday. Much of South Florida will be under curfew for the rest of the week.
In the meantime, Trantalis said law enforcement agencies will continue to monitor the possibility of further demonstrations. Part of that includes paying attention to “internet chatter” about groups and where they plan to organize. This monitoring led police to anticipate and thwart a planned looting of the Galleria Mall on Saturday, according to Trantalis.
He said new intelligence suggests the groups are “done with Fort Lauderdale” and prepared to move on. “Who else knows where else in the county they will land. It could be Lauderhill or Coral Springs, we don’t know.”
On Monday, businesses along Las Olas made their own preparations for the possibility of further damage.
Behind a large piece of plywood that covered a shattered window, bakers at Gran Forno on Las Olas Boulevard went about the business of making bread as a half-dozen National Guard troops stood on the sidewalk. Across the street from Gran Forno sat a fourdoor, camouflage-painted
Humvee and a larger transport truck.
Gov. DeSantis said on Monday that the soldiers were sent to support local police officers. “Florida has zero tolerance for violence, rioting and looting,” he said. “George Floyd’s murder was appalling, and the Minnesota perpetrators need to be brought to justice, but this cannot be used as a pretext for violence.”
Alex Vava, the manager of Gran Forno and a native of Romania, said the sight of soldiers wasn’t exactly comforting. “I come from a country where seeing soldiers was not good thing.”
By 10 a.m. the soldiers took off and were replaced by the typical army of runners, cyclists and dog walkers. By lunchtime, some diners braved the upper-80s heat on patios.
Jessica Lewis, a Toronto resident who lives parttime on Fort Lauderdale beach, stopped in the shade at Kilwins. She’d watched the television coverage of various protests, including those in Fort Lauderdale. She said she thought the police and protesters showed amazing patience, “until things got so crazy.”
A few doors down, Richard Malone placed hurricane shutters on the front of Grand Central Stationery. Above his head, strips of duct tape covered cracks in two windows. The frame between them had a deep dent.
Malone said he and coowner Rod Andreychuk found evidence that a large whiskey bottle had been used to the damage the storefront. Andreychuk said Sunday’s demonstration was largely peaceful but seemed to have attracted “fringe elements” intent on disturbing the peace. “All you need are a few bad apples to create this sort of chaos and damage.”
Grand Central Stationary has been shuttered for 10 weeks and Andreychuk said he planned to open the shop this week and keep it open for a few weeks before its normal hibernation between July and August. Instead, he will keep the shop closed until September.
When asked why, he pointed to the expenses the coronavirus inflicted on him coupled with the damaged windows. Later, a representative from a local glass company said a ballpark estimate for repairing the windows was about $1,200.
Andreychuk took the representative’s card. Then he let out a deep sigh.
“We’re small, independent shops,” he said. “And to have this on top of it all … It’s tough.”