Associated Press
Mostly peaceful rallies in Tampa and St. Petersburg took a turn late Tuesday when police used smoke grenades, nonlethal rounds, pepper canisters and other measures to disperse crowds.
Protesters fled, screaming and angry, and police made dozens of arrests, and briefly detained two Tampa Bay Times reporters who were covering the events, the newspaper reported.
Across Florida, multiple rallies were held Tuesday to protest racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd, a black man who pleaded for air while a white Minneapolis police officer put his knee on the handcuffed man’s neck for several minutes.
In St. Petersburg, a group of protesters went to police headquarters late Tuesday, where tensions heightened. Police Chief Anthony Holloway said a group of people were “setting off explosives and we don’t know what those explosives are.”
Officers told the crowd to leave the area, and then launched smoke and what appeared to be flash bangs at the crowd, the Times reported. Police and Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputies closed in on the crowd, arresting a number of them. A reporter was briefly detained and his hands were placed in zipties.
In Tampa, a few dozen protesters ended up outside the courthouse late Tuesday when police ordered them to disperse. An officer using a loud speaker from atop a pickup truck declared an unlawful assembly, the newspaper reported. Other officers formed a line with their bicycles. Protesters started pushing against them and officers fired nonlethal rounds, smoke grenades and pepper canisters.
Protesters began running and officers made a number of arrests, including a Times reporter whose hands were put in zipties for 10 to 15 minutes before she was released.
On Tuesday afternoon, some 2,000 peaceful demonstrators outside Orlando City Hall chanted “Black Lives Matter!” and “George Floyd” as cloudy skies threatened rain. They then walked more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) to the Orlando Police Department headquarters.
Aisxia Batiste held a sign that said, “Stop Racism”and listed the names of African Americans who have died at the hands of police officers, including Breonna Taylor and Tamir Rice.
“This has to change,” said Batiste, who describes herself as mixed race. “Something has to give. We’re done. This is the beginning of the end of something. It has to be.”
In Miami, a demonstration in Miami grew to about 400 people as protesters marched from a courthouse to Overtown, a historically black neighborhood north of downtown. Demonstrators sat on one knee during several stops to listen to organizers shouting instructions that they were to remain peaceful and hydrated in the 80-degree weather. They shouted “No Justice, No Peace. No racist police” as more than 30 officers in body armor followed the group a few blocks behind.
Barry Dudley, 20, a black college student from Miami, said he wants to see changes in law enforcement agencies around the country. Dudley goes to Barry University where he majors in criminology.
“I honestly don’t disagree with police using force when needed, but not this excessive force,” he said referring to the death of Floyd in Minnesota and Taylor in Kentucky. “I just want to see better treatment within the police officers.”
2 comments
Glenn Reihing
June 3, 2020 at 12:00 pm
A Suggestion on a Way Out…
Two days ago, former Pres. Barack Obama posted an essay on Medium entitled “How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change.” In it, he made the remark:
“But the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels.”
To me, electing people to reform the system has not worked. We have tried that and elected all sorts of people from different races, women, you name it, only to see no change even though there have been some good police leaders. But I have dusted off an old idea that I think might work if we updated it.
A long time ago, communities attempted to deal with the issue of police brutality with the formation of a “Citizen Committee”. Their purpose was to handle citizen’s complaints against police. Over the years they slowly disbanded or police unions citing privacy laws took the teeth out of these committees and they gradually went away. I say we bring them back with a few provisions.
First, the committee is made up of nine members. We make these members elected county officials that are limited to two, two-year terms. This allows all members from the community a chance to participate.
The only non-electable members on the committee will be a member from the Pinellas County Sheriff to represent all law enforcement interests in the county (to include St. Pete Police, Clearwater, etc.) and the Pinellas County Prosecutors Office to provide legal opinions. These members will be selected by the head of the Department but will be rotated out every four years.
The committee only allows only one member from law enforcement to be on the committee even though there are many entities for reasons that will be made clear.
The complaint is investigated, and witnesses (including the officer(s) involved) are called in front of the committee. This portion of the process is kept private for the protection of all involved.
Next, the investigation and deliberations of the complaint is considered private. This allows all members of the committee a chance to be frank about their impressions of the complaint without the pressure of having to satisfy a base of support.
The committee then draws up its findings and recommendations. It votes on that portion of work and sends it to both the Mayor or County Chair and the Chief of the police entity involved. It also sends the voting record (numbers only, so as not to identify who voted for what).
This is why there is only one representative from law enforcement. Having more than one member of law enforcement has the potential to “game” the system since the final recommendation(s) are voted on.
One of those entities then returns a letter to the committee describing their final actions on the outcome of the complaint which closes the loop.
The complaint, findings of the committee, the committee’s recommendations, and entities responses are all made public record thirty days after final action to provide transparency and to show citizens that the process is working. It also allows the citizens the ability to offer suggestions on how to improve the process.
John Kociuba
June 3, 2020 at 3:52 pm
Dear Floridians ~
Re: Florida Politics Propaganda
No more COVID 19 distancing? How could these rioters get permits to protest from their leftist leaders when business owners still can’t open because of the COVID 19 pandemic?
You know, the only pandemic where hospitals are closing due to not having any patients.
What Black America doesn’t understand is that they’re burning, looting, murdering citizens & businesses of all races! All races! This creates a huge “Anti-Black American” movement whether spoken or unspoken.
Yes. Blacks making up 12% of United States population and engaging in majority of violent crime, drug culture, fatherless children children, it’s this citizens opinion that BLACK AMERICA is on a crash course to self destruction.
Indeed. As the drowny man doesn’t grab ropes, floats, life vest to save himself, wishes to drown the next man in the water trying to save him. Sound about right?
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE, BUT FIRST ITS GOING TO PISS YOU OFF!”
P.S. Valid Demmings & Democrats love destruction of private property and murder.
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