But one young woman today explained that she came out to the streets Monday for her young child’s sake and his future in a country where he will be judged by his ethnicity. Saying how she will soon have to teach him how to behave in the event of a police interaction, such as “keep your hands on the dashboard, do not make any sudden movements,” she went on to address the police directly: “My son is not your enemy. I teach my son to be respectful…. Despite everything good about my child, he’s a black man and that’s all they see.”
House Speaker Tim Moore complained that the police response to Sunday night’s unrest was too subdued. “There needs to be a very clear message that lawlessness will not be permitted,” and that Governor Cooper needs to do “a better job.”
But Saige Martin of the Raleigh City Council called for an investigation into police actions during Sunday night’s protests. He recalled how ReOpenNC, a small group objecting to Covid-19 restrictions on movement and business operations, was able to parade around downtown Raleigh carrying machine guns and rocket launchers without police involvement. The governor quickly met with ReOpenNC leader Adam Smith and consequently relaxed the coronavirus restrictions throughout the state.
“We can clean up and repair broken windows, restore lost inventory, but we can never restore the lives taken from us by police violence,” he said.
Martin told reports “right-wing groups were likely present in Raleigh last night” with the intent to “discredit the labor of black organizations and the Black Lives Matter movement.” Speaking by phone to television station WRAL, the Reverend William Barber III concurred, saying, “A lot of the so-called violence is not the majority, and much of it is infiltration, people trying to discredit the movement.”
But when veteran anchorman David Crabtree asked Barber to disavow the violence, Barber was forthright in his response.
“Segregationists said that Dr Martin Luther King was not being peaceful. People said Moral Monday [the movement Barber now leads] was not peaceful. I was arrested and charged with a crime when I said North Carolinians should be provided with healthcare. Coretta Scott King said that denying healthcare is a form of violence. We don’t take on the violence, we challenge it.”
As Crabtree cut in, Barber concluded, “When you see the police who is supposed to be a protector of the state and has a badge on with our name on it, it becomes a tipping point. Yes, it’s about George Floyd, but it goes much, much deeper.”
Minutes before the curfew is set to begin, hundreds of protestors have been packed together on the small grassy square around the old State Capitol building at the head of Fayetteville Street. Unable to practice social distancing, many are trying to keep their faces covered with various types of masks to protect themselves from Covid-19. Cars passing along East Morgan Street are honking their support as they continuously circle around the square, waving and calling out from their rolled down windows to compatriots who will soon be subject to arrest. On the other side of the square, about a hundred protestors have sat down silently in the street in front of the governor’s mansion, bracing for what is to come.