San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Violence breaks out after S.A. rally
5,000 were protesting death of black man in Minnesota
An estimated 5,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of downtown Saturday evening to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than
eight minutes.
Although the march largely was peaceful, protesters afterward smashed windows and clashed with police in streets near Alamo Plaza.
About 10 p.m., officers fired tear gas to scatter protesters massed at North Alamo and East
Houston streets. Elsewhere, police fired pepper-spray projectiles.
Earlier, demonstrators pelted a police car with eggs and shattered windows at a visitor information center and on shops and offices along Houston.
The demonstration began about 5 p.m. at Travis Park. Participants then paraded through downtown to demonstrate in
front of San Antonio Police Department headquarters. Chants of “We can’t breathe!” and “Black lives matter!” echoed through the streets.
Waving signs that said “Mama, I can’t breathe” and “SAY HIS NAME,” people from all walks of life — from social justice activists to parents pushing toddlers in strollers — traveled the more than 3-mile route.
Although a number of similar marches across the nation have turned violent, San Antonio’s remained largely peaceful — at least during the demonstration itself.
Afterward, though, there were scattered confrontations. Protesters pelted a police car with eggs and smashed windows at a visitor information center.
The mood was different during the earlier Travis Park rally and march.
“When black lives matter, maybe we can get to all lives matter,” Gavin Rogers, associate pastor at Travis Park United Methodist Church, said as he marched with the crowd.
Clad in a white robe with a red clerical stole draped over his shoulders and fastened with a white rope, Rogers, 38, held up a poster of Breonna Taylor, a Kentucky emergency medical worker who was shot and killed March 13 when officers burst into her home while serving a warrant in a narcotics case.
“We’re here to support all those who have lost lives through a great cruelty,” he said. “We’re here to spread the love of God to the black community and people of all colors who share this injustice.”
Floyd, a 46-year-old a Houston native, died Monday night during a confrontation with police in Minneapolis. He was a one-time high school sports star who worked as a bouncer at a restaurant in Minneapolis.
In video footage shot by onlookers, then-officer Derek Chauvin, 44, who is white, is seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck as the suspect lies face-down on the pavement. Floyd is heard repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe.”
Chauvin kept his knee pressed against Floyd’s neck for more than 8 minutes, a probable cause affidavit for the officer’s arrest states.
“Police are trained that this type of restraint with a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous,” the affidavit adds.
Video of Floyd’s death has enraged Americans from all walks of life, sparking violent confrontations with police and condemnations from political leaders.
At the start of the Travis Park rally, thousands gathered to listen to activists and community members speak about overcoming racial injustice.
As the crowd snaked through downtown, some people emerged from stores and homes to chant in solidarity with the protesters. “Black lives matter” signs were taped to apartments windows along the way.
One of the march’s tense moments occurred in front of SAPD headquarters, when a police vehicle blared its siren and crawled toward the oncoming marchers, the driver apparently unaware traffic had been barred from the street in front of the building.
“Get out of here, man!” people in the crowd yelled as other police officers on foot quickly directed the driver to reverse and take another route to the building.
About the same time, other officers wove their way on foot through the heart of the crowd. Protesters turned to face them, raised their signs, and began to chant, “(Expletive) the police!” and “Don’t shoot, hands up!”
But the police moved on and so, too, did the protesters, turning their attention to the march back to Travis Park.
As the early evening sun cast a warm glow over the park and marchers, Kathrine Johnson, 62, read aloud a poem she’d written about Floyd’s death.
It began: “The burn of anger that transcends emancipation, the furnace that rages in my son’s core. Fueled by those that do not see him, those that do not see through the flames of fear, the flames of greed. Those that do not see the flames that consume his hope.”
Johnson said she went to the protest out of both anger and hope — and out of concern for her family.
“The police see our children as bad because that’s all they see. They don’t see them in the choirs, they don’t see them dancing. They need to start seeing our children other than just the ones they’re killing,” she said.
Some of the marchers lingered in the park, while others continued toward the Alamo, where counterprotesters, armed with assault-style rifles and shotguns, stood in front of the white-marble Cenotaph, a monument to the Alamo defenders.
The day before, anti-white supremacy slogans scrawled in red spray paint appeared on the monument, which prompted groups such as the This is Texas Freedom Force to organize a counterprotest during the George Floyd march. On its event page on Facebook, the group urged its members to arm themselves and bring trained dogs.
On Saturday evening, members of the Texas Freedom Force were joined by other armed men who identified themselves as members of the “Bugaloo Boys.”
Police formed a barrier between a group of armed protesters and the marchers. One row of officers used their bikes to separate the groups; a second row stood with brown batons in their hands.
“The enemy is behind you, turn around,” one protester yelled at the police.
Around 8 p.m., a stampede of protesters ensued. People sprinted from the scene, running into each other and screaming.
“RUN!” protesters cried, piling into open restaurant doors or sprinting fast down the streets. Many ran because others were running, apparently from unfounded fear that shooting had erupted.
“They’re standing there with fear tactics, and we’re just trying to send a message to be peaceful,” said Pony Hawk, a protester, referring to the counterdemonstrators. “But the cops are defending them not us. Their back is not to us, it’s to the white supremacists.”