A small sign sits atop a big landmark in Georgia’s Classic City. It reads simply, “I can’t breathe.”
Those words have become the rallying cry for protests across the globe since the death of George Floyd, the unarmed black man who died on May 25 while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
Northeast Georgians added their voices to the global outrage this weekend. Around 2,000 people in Athens turned out Sunday, May 31, for a march and rally calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality.
A small group of black activists led the Athens protest. They marched and chanted from the Athens courthouse downtown to the iconic University of Georgia Arch. There, local leaders delivered speeches on bullhorns. Toward the end of the protest, the crowd briefly panicked and started to scatter after a man was seen carrying a weapon, the Athens-Banner Herald reports. He was arrested. Police later told reporters the man had a fake gun.
Protesters vandalized a downtown Civil War monument but, for the most part, the afternoon part of the protest remained calm.
As the day stretched into night and the crowd thinned, the police and National Guard presence grew significantly. Athens-Clarke County Police officers and the Guard disbanded the crowd with tear gas. Shouts of “This is tyranny” and “We are in America” can be heard in a video shot by the hometown newspaper. Police arrested some of the demonstrators.
When it was all over, Athens’ streets were littered with signs and trash, but far less than on a typical UGA game day. One sign perched on the fence near The Arch drew on the towns’ affinity for sports saying, “Wish yall loved Black people like you love the Black men while they are wearing your college teams uniform.”
Gainesville arrests, damage
A day earlier, in Gainesville, a peaceable assembly turned tense after protesters damaged police patrol vehicles and a local business.
The group started out small, around twenty or so. They held signs and stood on the sidewalks near the pedestrian bridge on Jesse Jewell Parkway. Around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) says the crowd started to grow and people began walking in the streets. GPD called in back up from the Hall County Sheriff’s Office and Oakwood Police Department to “maintain a safe environment.”
“Later on into the night, we began experiencing civil unrest through the destruction of our businesses and community,” GPD says on Facebook. Windows were broken out at the Slacks Auto Parts store downtown and Target was burglarized. In addition, approximately six Gainesville police vehicles were vandalized.
Gainesville police arrested nine people during the protest on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to public drunkenness.
There were no reports of any injuries.
We stand with you
As images of similar protests continue to emerge from towns and cities across America, many officials blame the looting and rioting on outside influencers. Others are reaching out to the citizens they serve offering to listen and “walk with you.”
The Gainesville Police Department touched on both themes in a message to the community.
“We are hurting with you and we want you to know that we stand with you,” the department says on its Facebook page. “We know that others from the outside have come to try to divide us, but we will stand with you and stand for you.”
The post goes on to say, “Please do not forget that we are Gainesville, and Gainesville stands united.”
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