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Young women gather for a second night of Detroit protest against George Floyd's killing. (Photo: Nancy Derringer)
Detroit officials and activists are blaming outsiders from mostly white suburbs for much the violence and property damage that occurred during an initially peaceful Friday protest of police brutality.
About 1,000 people gathered outside Detroit police headquarters in solidarity against this week’s brutal police killing of a Minneapolis man alleged to have used a counterfeit bill. Sixty were eventually arrested for disorderly conduct, with almost two-thirds of them from outside the city, police said.
In a Saturday news conference with Police Chief James Craig, activists accused the "agitators" and "provocateurs" of co-opting the demonstration. The protesters — from suburbs including Westland, Lincoln Park, West Bloomfield, and Brighton — were described as misguided allies who’d wreaked havoc on a majority-black city hard hit by coronavirus, one where some corridors still have yet to rebound more than a half-century after the Rebellion of 1967.
"They're no different than what we consider white supremacists,” said Rev. Charles Williams II, president of the National Action Network Michigan, adding that some demonstrators showed “blatant disregard for our officers, for our community members, for our property, our tax dollars.”
"Hit (I-94) and go back the other way,” said Pastor Mo of Live in Peace Movement. “You will not come in this city and make us look bad … You ain't gonna tear down what we've built up."
Williams urged against further protests Saturday. Nevertheless, a crowd of approximately 200 was back in front of Detroit police headquarters hours later, preparing for another march.
Shortly after the group set off, a young white demonstrator was seen spray-painting a building in Corktown.
Across the country, cities have been set ablaze in protests following George Floyd’s Memorial Day killing by a Minneapolis police officer who was later fired and charged with murder.
Officials did not expect the same in Detroit, a nearly 80-percent black city whose police force was 55-percent black as of last year.
Craig and Mayor Mike Duggan had given Friday's protest their blessing, and officers began by handing out masks in an effort to prevent demonstrators from contracting coronavirus. The day before, Craig went on national television to condemn Floyd’s killing and call for officer Derek Chauvin to be charged with murder.
Things took a turn when the crowd of about 1,000 peaceful demonstrators gathered outside the downtown police headquarters split up. One group marched down Michigan Avenue, smashing the windows of at least two police cruisers, officials said. Demonstrators eventually began throwing rocks and bottles at officers. Craig said two sustained minor injuries.
Just before midnight, a 21-year-old Eastpointe man was shot and killed in what police later described as a peripheral incident.
Police, clad in riot gear, responded with force. At least one officer was seen on social media video punching a demonstrator in the head. They shot tear gas canisters several times, burning the skin of at least one demonstrator wearing a mask.
A Michigan Avenue clinic spray-painted Saturday. (Photo: Jack Thomas)
Still, Duggan commended officers for behaving “with courage and professionalism” in the face of provocation.
Coordinators appeared to seek a course correction at the start of Saturday’s demonstration.
“We appreciate everyone who is here today,” a demonstrator told the crowd through a megaphone. “I need you to be a part of the solution not a part of the problem. The people who live here, we’ve gotta deal with what you left behind. Don’t leave brokenness behind. You came to help us right? … I need you to leave healing behind.”
A representative with the group By Any Means Necessary, meanwhile, pushed back on police claims that outside agitators were to blame for uprisings around the country, saying they’re a logical response to entrenched systemic racism.
"The one thing we can say about (the uprisings) across the country, about the people whose motives are genuine — they’re saying enough is enough," Kenneth Reed, of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, told Deadline Detroit. "We’re tired of being harassed, a lack of opportunity and people being brutalized and killed. Dr. King said a riot is the language of the unheard."
Videos from Friday’s event in Detroit show a crowd that appeared to be at least half white at its peak.
At the Saturday news conference, Pastor Mo contended Detroit doesn’t have the same level of tension between its police and citizens as other cities. Reed called that notion “delusional,” noting a series of misconduct incidents in recent years, some of them racially charged.
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