Crowd protests, sets fires, vandalizes businesses in Eugene (Oregon)
May 30, 2020 at 3:27 AM Updated at 1:19 PM
A Friday night protest in Eugene signaling local disgust with the killing of black Minneapolis resident George Floyd by a white city police officer evolved into a fire in the street and vandalism of city and private property that continued into early Saturday morning.
The crowd swelled to more than 300 people and set property on fire in front of the West Seventh Street at I-105 on-ramp, smashed the windows of local businesses, chanted now-familiar slogans against police violence, battered vehicles with their drivers still inside and set off fireworks.
Some wore the surgical masks and other face coverings now common because of the coronavirus pandemic. Others did not.
Eugene police called them “an unruly mob” in a news release issued early Saturday morning. The scene was similar, but on a smaller scale, to riots breaking out across the county over Floyd’s death, including in Portland and Seattle.
No arrests during the incident, but Eugene police Chief Chris Skinner said video would be reviewed to find people involved in criminal behavior and track them down.
The protest apparently began peacefully outside the Lane County Courthouse Building just after 8 p.m. before moving moving toward 10th and Olive streets around 9 p.m., growing to about 200 people along the way, according to Eugene police.
The crowd was moving up Seventh Avenue against traffic by 10:30 p.m., marching and chanting, getting honks and shouts from some drivers and residents they passed. The crowd chanted “no justice, no peace” and “black lives matter,” led on by the amplified voice of Clea Ibrahim, who said she didn’t organize the protest, but that “someone just gave me a bullhorn.”
“Who was murdered?” she would ask.
“George Floyd!” they would answer.
“Say his name!” she would shout.
“George Floyd!”
At least twice during the march, some protesters shouted to each other they’d spotted a weapon in the crowd and the marchers did their best to expel those people. It’s not clear anyone was actually armed, but protesters signaled to each other their intention for a peaceful display.
Ibrahim told The Register-Guard later she wasn’t a march organizer, only someone with a loud voice who was handed a megaphone.
“I didn’t want to vandalize this town. I just wanted to run through the town and scream George Floyd’s name,” Ibrahim said. “I didn’t ask for the fire. I didn’t ask to break those windows. I had no idea those windows were going to get broken. That’s why I was trying to stop them.”
The crowd marched from West Sixth Avenue up Washington Street and quickly took over the on-ramp and the intersection. When the crowd set up camp in the intersection, some group members started fires in the street soon after.
… Eugene police avoided escalating the situation by moving in, instead monitoring for safety,” the Eugene police news release said.
Protesters continued to add more and more to the fire that burned in the middle of the intersection. Traffic cones, several dumpsters, signs and flags from nearby businesses, fireworks, a tire, street signs, a metal picnic table from a neighboring business and an oily-looking barrel were all burned.
Some in the crowd pleaded for calm. A man threw two buckets of water onto the flames with little effect.
Then, the window smashing started.
more:
https://www.registerguard.com/news/20200530/crowd-protests-sets-fires-vandalizes-businesses-in–eugene