Mostly peaceful crowd turns out for demonstration
A demonstration in support of Confederate monuments held Saturday in Hot Springs National Park drew, at its peak, between 350-400 demonstrators and counterprotesters and resulted in only a handful of arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct, city and National Park Service officials said.
The demonstration, the fourth of its kind this year, drew more attention than the earlier gatherings given the events of the week before, when violence broke out at a Charlottesville, Va., rally to protest the removal of a Gen. Robert E. Lee monument.
Uniformed officers from city, county and state law enforcement agencies were stationed throughout the downtown historic district — an unusual sight for an area usually bustling with tourists this time of year — punctuated by the drone of an Arkansas State Police helicopter that circled overhead for most of the morning.
The event’s organizer, James Brock, of Hot Springs, representing the Confederate Square Group, said before the demonstration that it would focus on the preservation of Confederate monuments and would not support neo-Nazism, white supremacy or white nationalism.
“We are here to preserve our history, preserve our monument, stand up and say that we do not want to see
our history destroyed,” Brock said Saturday. He told The Sentinel-Record that the demonstration did not in any way endorse slavery or racism.
A group of counterprotesters made their way south from Arlington Lawn to Confederate Square later Saturday afternoon, where the demonstrators placed flowers at the foot of a statue of a Confederate soldier on property owned by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Some of the arrests occurred when counterprotesters met demonstrators at the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Reserve Street, as they chanted “love, not hate” while the demonstrators marched south to Confederate Square.
Maya Williams, 19, of North Little Rock, and Thomas Bemberg, 29, of Hot Springs, were each charged by Hot Springs police with disorderly conduct. Donald Tankersley, of Hot Springs, was charged by the National Park Service with disorderly conduct and violation of a federal burning ordinance, Hot Springs police said in a news release.
The release also said there were three medical calls for heat-related issues.
Counterprotesters gathered in a permitted area in Hill Wheatley Plaza, located across Reserve Avenue from the south end of Bathhouse Row, and used the city-owned parking lot as a staging point to send small groups marching to the demonstration site on Arlington Lawn at the north end of the Row.
“We’re just here to condemn racism and bigotry,” said counterprotester Ethan Williams, of Corning. “Since our president won’t do it, we feel like we need to.”
Counterprotester Sabrina Niedzialek, of Hot Springs, said she believed that the demonstrators’ rhetoric about the Confederate flag and Confederate Square statue ignores “historical context.”
“The context is just as important as their personal feelings,” she said. “There are other ways that we can celebrate those soldiers and their deaths.”
Both Brock and Terry Harris, of Middle, Tenn., had attended the Charlottesville rally the week before. They said that the preservation of Confederate monuments is about the preservation of history and Southern heritage.
Brock and Harris said they oppose the notion of moving Hot Springs’ statue to a museum, away from public viewing. Brock called Hot Springs’ Confederate monument “a museum within itself.”
Rabbi Richard Chapin of Congregation House of Israel urged the community of Hot Springs to pray.
“Pray for peace,” he said. “We can’t stop people from demonstrating. That’s America. But pray that no one gets hurt, and that there’s no violence.”
Hot Springs National Park Superintendent Josie Fernandez said that, as of noon Saturday, she was pleased with both the demonstration and counter demonstration.
“People are behaving the way they are supposed to — they are exercising their constitutional rights, and operating within the law,” she said.
The Hot Springs Police Department, National Park Service, Garland County Sheriff’s Department, Arkansas State Police, Arkansas Probation & Parole and the FBI collaborated for the past several days to develop a comprehensive operational plan for the demonstration, the police department’s news release said.
The release said that the event was “a tremendously successful operation” due to planning, communication and relationships between law enforcement, government and community.
City Manager David Frasher said that he was happy with the day’s outcome.
“We’re pleased with how people conducted themselves, and I’m super proud of all of our partners in this,” he said.
“Like many of you, I had some justified concerns about today’s rally,” Hot Springs Mayor Pat McCabe said in a statement released Saturday night.
“While Hot Springs has had many similar rallies sponsored by the Confederate Square Group, today’s event was preceded by last week’s atrocities in Charlottesville. With continued prayer for the residents of Charlottesville, our city government and public safety departments prepared for and executed a successful community safety plan today,” McCabe said.
“Having witnessed firsthand the efforts of those in the Emergency Operations Center, I would like to thank all the employees of the city of Hot Springs; city manager’s office; Chief Jason Stachey and the Hot Springs Police Department; Chief Ed Davis and the Hot Springs Fire Department; Arkansas State Police; Arkansas Fusion Center; Garland County Sheriff’s Office; National Park Service; FBI; LifeNet; Garland County Department of Emergency Management; area hospitals; and the assets offered by Gov. Hutchinson. Collectively, their actions provided for a peaceful demonstration where Americans were able to express their freedom of speech,” the statement said.
“Our community rose above divisiveness and discord and there is no question that today we came together to mutually protect citizens’ safety and the liberty of free speech,” McCabe said.