Peaceful protest later turns tense
Police use tear gas to disperse crowd blocking State Road 408
During a full day of demonstrations over the death of George Floyd that spilled across downtown Orlando on Saturday, protesters demanded justice for the Minnesota man and said they feared they or a loved one could be next to die at the hands of police.
Although the protests started peacefully Saturday afternoon in front of the Windermere home owned by Derek Chauvin, the police officer charged in Floyd’s death, by evening tensions rose downtown, culminating with police using tear gas to clear protesters off State Road 408.
The demonstrators had blocked traffic in both directions near Orange
Blossom Trail around 7:30 p.m., standing with their arms linked even as officers threatened arrests and donned gas masks.
Soon, police were firing canisters into the crowd. As the protesters fled, some picked up gas canisters that had landed along the highway embankment and threw them back toward police. Amid the chaos, a downpour began, further dispersing the protesters as they fled.
In a videotaped statement released 10:30 p.m., Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolón said his officers used the gas because protesters threw rocks and bottles at them during the highway standoff.
“At one point, while on 408, while the participants were blocking the eastbound and westbound traffic, officers issued an order for the crowd to disperse,” he said. “Unfortunately, some opted to throw rocks and bottles at officers, which forced the officers to deploy the chemical
agent.”
Earlier Saturday night, state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, called the use of tear gas on protesters “excessive.”
“Use of tear gas towards protesters… was excessive & we’ve asked the Chief for an explanation,” she posted on Twitter. “The safety of Orlandoans is my top priority & it’s on all of us to keep each other safe.”
Meanwhile, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer in a statement called for the city to “stand together against inequity” as “one community united in our compassion.”
“What happened to George Floyd was horrific and unacceptable,” said in a post on Twitter. “In our city, we will always support the right for residents to safely protest to show their anger and frustration over injustices like this. Together we should use our voices to peacefully enact change”
Earlier Saturday, a throng of hundreds stood and listened outside Orlando City Hall as 42-year-old Amy Bishop, wearing a mask and speaking into a megaphone, evoked the daily fear she feels when her son leaves home and she wonders if he’ll return alive.
“I’m a mother to a Trayvon Martin. I am a mother of a little black boy,” she said. “… If you are not ready to lay your life down for the cause, you don’t know my [expletive] pain.”
Later, as protesters marched above Interstate 4 on Anderson Street, 28-year-old Joshua Brown screamed out chants for at least a minute until his voice was hoarse and his face was dripping with sweat. Brown said the pain of his experiences brought him out, like when police pull him over and assume he’s been to jail before. He hasn’t.
“I’m an innocent man but I get treated like a criminal,” he said. “When I saw the video of George Floyd, I cried.”
Just before nightfall, tensions grew when hundreds of protesters gathered outside Orlando Police Department Headquarters on South Street. Officers, many wearing helmets and shields, encircled the entire building.
“Who do you serve?” the crowd chanted in unison.
The officers remained stoic as they were shouted down by some among the protesters.
Despite other tense moments, Orlando had by nightfall avoided the widespread violence and destruction seen in other cities. There had been at least one arrest — a man forcibly taken into custody for unknown reasons by several officers near Colonial Drive and Orange Avenue — but no reports of fires or damage to vehicles or buildings.
Two of Central Florida’s top law-enforcement officials — Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolón, who
was present with his officers Saturday evening, and Orange County Sheriff John Mina — have denounced the actions of the Minneapolis officers, as has the president of the union that represents Orange County deputies.
The largest protest downtown began at the Pulse Memorial.
“Don’t choke me! Don’t choke me!” the crowd chanted.
The protesters made clear that Floyd’s death was not an isolated event. Some chanted or carried signs with a phrase tied to another black death at the hands of police: “Hands up, don’t shoot,” a rallying cry after the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
Daline Vincent, 26, and her small dog Max were among the crowd at Pulse, the pup with a “Black Lives Matter” sign attached to his leash. Vincent said she was at the protest for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Kentucky EMT killed by police during a botched raid.
When she was a teenager, Vincent said a police officer once pointed a gun at her while pursuing a man through her neighborhood, after the suspect hid behind her.
“I just know that police brutality is real, because I don’t think any other community would accept a police officer pointing a gun at a 13-year-old,” she said.
Soon, the protesters went on the move, marching up Orange Avenue with stops at City Hall and the Orange County Courthouse. They chanted as they went: “Say his name! George Floyd.” “No justice, no peace.” “Three more arrests.”
Chauvin, 44, the Minneapolis officer who pinned Floyd to the ground with a knee to his neck for several minutes Monday, an act that was captured in a video that quickly went viral, was taken into custody on murder and manslaughter charges Friday.
But three fellow officers were also involved in Floyd’s arrest on suspicion of passing a counterfeit bill, which ended in the 46-year-old black man pleading to the white officers that he could not breathe, prior to his death. Activists have said they have no intention of halting the demonstrations while the other men remain free.
While the rallies underway in Central Florida have been organized by activists, many of those in attendance have said they hadn’t participated in marches prior to the Floyd case, but the disturbing video of his agony urged them to action.
As she walked from Lake Eola to join the main crowd of protesters at the Orange County Courthouse late Saturday afternoon, West Orange High senior Yania Baber, 17, said she brought her mom and cousins out to protest racial injustice. She said Floyd’s death pushed her to join those demonstrating, though she’d never done anything like it before.
“It’s 2020 and I’m sick of this,” Yania said, as she walked to the courthouse. “… Enough is enough.”
The heat was oppressive as marchers traversed Orange Avenue, but the protesters were prepared. Some brought cases of water to hand out to chose marching, including roommates Jessica Langdale and Lacy Jones. They also had a first aid kit.
“I can’t begin to understand what … black men and women are going through every day,” said Langdale, who is white.
While the crowd stayed mostly together as it moved from Pulse, to City Hall, to the courthouse, large groups fanned out after that. Another moment of tension came when a group of protesters attempted to march up an Interstate 4 ramp and were met with a line of officers, some with gas masks perched on their heads.
The day’s demonstrations began miles west of downtown near Windermere, with a third consecutive day of protests outside a townhouse owned by Chauvin and his wife, which authorities have described as an unoccupied vacation home.
On Friday, a protester scrawled “murderer” and “justice for George Floyd” in chalk on the sidewalk outside the townhouse. Demonstrators also splashed paint on the walls and painted “racist” on the sidewalk.
Chauvin and his wife, Kellie Chauvin, bought the three-bedroom townhouse in 2011. In a statement released to news outlets late Friday by her attorney, Kellie Chauvin announced that she had filed to divorce her husband after 10 years of marriage.
“Her utmost sympathy lies with [Floyd’s] family, with his loved ones and with everyone who is grieving this tragedy,” the statement read in part.
As they had done Thursday night and all day Friday, protesters there on Saturday chanted, waved signs and proclaimed that black lives matter and George Floyd’s death deserves justice.
But then, the chants gave way to testimonials.
Brandon Baker made the almost hour drive from Lakeland Saturday morning so he could stand in solidarity with others against police brutality.
“I’m tired,” Baker, 25, yelled into a megaphone outside Chauvin’s home. “I wake up every day and I don’t know if it will be my last.”
He said anytime he sees police lights behind him, he gets anxious — is a taillight out? Is his music too loud? Baker said he didn’t used to attend protests like this, but watching Floyd’s death and the resulting unrest replay on TV over and over again became exhausting.
“I’m tired silent,” he said. of being