Two protests — one tense, one peaceful — mark seventh day of Black Lives Matter rallies
For the seventh day in a row, passionate demonstrators marched around South Florida, protesting the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota police in a national movement against police brutality that has taken hold with extraordinary speed.
But unlike previous nights this week, Friday’s protest had several tense moments, including showdowns between marchers and Florida Highway Patrol officers at the on-ramp of the Julia Tuttle Causeway, and another standoff between police and demonstrators who exploited a hole in a fence to get out onto I-95 and block traffic.
No one was injured or arrested in either instance. But the more volatile nature of the demonstration led Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to move the county curfew back to 10 p.m. indefinitely starting Friday night. He had previously loosened the curfew to midnight on June 4.
A calm but passionate start
At 4 p.m. Friday, a crowd of several hundred people gathered in front of the popular Panther Coffee on NW 24th St. and Second Ave. in Wynwood. The gathering was organized via social media using posters and the name of the Black Panthers, the revolutionary political group founded in 1966 in California to address racial inequality in the U.S., in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Protesters carrying signs and wearing masks chanted “We’re not going to take it anymore!” and “Who has the power?” at the rally. After some speeches, the crowd began marching north on North Miami Avenue, then turned east on 34th Street toward Biscayne Blvd..
Rebekah Ketcham traveled from Gainesville to attend Friday’s march.
“I grew up in a diverse place, and I want to again,” she said. “As a white woman, it’s my duty to show up. It’s the least that I can do.”
Miranda Ryshawy, 23, of Miami, hung out the passenger side of a car as protesters walked by. She held a two-column sign with a list of names of people killed by police.
“My parents and I were just appalled at what’s happening in the country,” she said. “The names on my sign, there are so many more that I ran out of room.”
A tense turn
The mood became tense when protesters tried walking onto the I-195 highway to Miami Beach from NE 36th Street.
Dozens of Florida Highway Patrol officers dressed in riot gear blocked the path of the protesters, some of whom were yelling, “Don’t kill us.”
The standoff lasted about 30 minutes. As a precaution, the City of Miami Beach issued a text alert announcing it was closing the highway in both east and west directions at 6:15 p.m.
The marchers then turned around and ended up gathering at Northwest 29th Street.
As they walked back, they were met by police clad in riot gear blocking the various highway on-ramps.
The protesters yelled at them, “Why are you in riot gear? We don’t see no riot here!”
Following that standoff, the marchers made their way west through Wynwood again, then used an opening in a fence on NW Sixth Ave. and 26th Street to walk onto I-95, blocking northbound traffic there. Some of the drivers caught in the demonstration honked their horns in encouragement. Others honked out of exasperation.
City of Miami Police and Florida Highway Patrol officers, who seemed to have been caught unaware by the I-95 blockade, responded by blocking traffic on both lanes, then forming a line across the highway and forcing the protesters to leave the highway using the same fence entrance. That standoff took about 30 minutes.
Many protesters did not want to give their names or have their faces shown. One young woman, who would only give her initials — LDS — said she attended the march because she felt she had to do something.
“I haven’t put myself at the front yet, so here I am,” she said.
At 9 p.m., the crowd headed back toward Wynwood, but its ranks had thinned and people had started to disperse.
Broward protest
Earlier Friday afternoon in Davie, several dozen protesters gathered at US 441 and Griffin Road to demand justice after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Boxing champion Evander Holyfield was among the protesters in Davie. He was interviewed live on WSVN 7News.
Protesters at both locations took a moment to sing happy birthday to Breonna Taylor, a medical worker shot by police inside her home on March 13 during a mistaken drug raid in Louisville. Taylor would have turned 27 Friday.
For days, demonstrators have taken to the streets to put an end to police brutality.
Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Yanko Reyes described the Davie gathering at 5 p.m. as “peaceful.” He said the group was marching slowly north on 441.
The exit and entrance ramps to 441 from Florida’s Turnpike, Interstate 595 and State Road 84 were shut as a precaution, Reyes said.
By 6 p.m. the ramps to 441 reopened, Reyes said.
The group, which had grown to about 120 people, headed north on 441 and stopped just before 595 before turning around and heading south.
No arrests or citations were given, Reyes said.
“It was mainly peaceful,” he said.
According to a spokesperson for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, no demonstrations were planned to take place in that city on Friday.
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 6:06 PM.
