South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
South Florida joins protests against police violence in US
Impromptu protests are popping up around Florida with some more peaceful than others, but not as violent as those in other parts of the country where arson, looting and confrontations with police and the national guard have spread.
The largest of the protests Saturday may have been in Miami, where hundreds of people gathered at the Torch of Friendship monument on Biscayne Boulevard at 3 p.m. before marching down Third Street, away from Bayfront Park. By 5 p.m., the protesters had completed a looping route and returned to the monument, weaving through traffic on Biscayne Boulevard while chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “George
Floyd,” the name of the black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, whose death has touched off protests around the country.
By 6 p.m., though, the protesters had moved onto I-95, directly across from Miami Police Department headquarters, where they shut down traffic, initially in the northbound lanes, closest to the police department, but eventually in both.
Another, somewhat smaller protest took place in Coral Gables, and further protests are planned for Sunday at 3 p.m. near St. John’s Baptist Church in Miami and near the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center in Broward County.
More than 50 protesters gathered at Pine
Tree Park, in the 1400 block of Forest Hill Boulevard in West Palm Beach at 11 a.m. Saturday. They chanted “Black Lives Matter” and waved signs at passing motorists who showed their support by honking their horns.
Organizer Yesenia Valle, 21, of West Palm Beach, put the word out via social media and was thrilled with the response.
“Honestly, I’m so happy that the message got across and that more events are popping up,” she said. “Someone shouldn’t have to die for us to realize that there’s an issue that should be acknowledged in our country.”
Simultaneous protests were going on at Bryant Park in Lake Worth, and in Tallahassee where a truck drove into a crowd of protesters near the state capital building, injuring at least one person and leading to the driver’s arrest. Another man was arrested for driving an SUV through a crowd of protesters in Gainesville.
Protesters also gathered outside the Windermere, winter home of fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with murder for the death of George Floyd.
Pedro Catellanos, 30, of West Palm Beach, has taken part in protests before but he came to Pine Tree Park because he felt there is more at stake than just Floyd’s death in police custody.
“There was no respect for his life,” he said. “With everything happening with the coronavirus and everything happening in the world, we need all lives to pull together, supporting one another.”
Markus Lockhart, 19, of Greenacres, said he participated in three or four protests before because he’s passionate about ending injustice.
“I think when situations like this happen in America it’s easy to turn to violence but if we stick to peacefulness we’ll be fine,” he said. “No one gets arrested. No one gets in trouble. No one gets hurt and we can still get our message across.”
Raven Killingbeck, 19, of West Palm Beach, said it’s gotten to the point where she’s afraid of the police.
“Being a person of color, it’s very scary for me to put my trust in someone who might kill me,” she said. “I want to make sure we put a stop to it.”
More protests were held in Coral Gables Saturday and another was planned in Lauderhill on Sunday.