“Numerous” businesses in downtown Dallas were looted during the night after protests that began peacefully, while small but still intense protests broke out in Austin, leading to six arrests.
The protests are part of a wave of nationwide unrest following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Dallas, by a Minneapolis police officer.
NBC 5 in Dallas reported that a downtown sneaker store, skate shop, and Bank of America were among the businesses that had their windows smashed, and that people were seen running out of the buildings with looted items.
“As the protesters marched through Downtown, a small group broke off from the main marchers,” the news outlet reported. “That smaller group had several encounters with officers in the area, and even severely damaged four Dallas police cruisers. Back windows of the SUV’s were busted out, and numerous tires slashed.”
Mayor Eric Johnson issued a statement during the night saying, “The protesters in Dallas tonight have largely been peaceful and respectful. I fully support their calls for justice. But we have a small handful of people who apparently have other agendas and have been destroying and stealing property. We can’t have that. It honors no one.”
Outside the police headquarters in Austin, protesters late in the night confronted police chanting, “I can’t breathe” — the words of George Floyd before his death as an officer knelt on his neck. Larger and more organized protests are planned Saturday in Austin and San Antonio.
Protesters also voiced outrage over the recent Austin police killing of Mike Ramos, a man who was initially shot with a bean bag gun during an arrest. Startled, Ramos jumped into his car and was driving away when he was shot dead by an officers.
Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore issued a statement Friday evening that prosecutors would be presenting the Ramos case to a special Grand Jury. “Following a review of the case with my Civil Rights Director, we felt it appropriate to proceed,” she said.
In San Antonio, a handful of armed members of a right-wing group called This is Texas Freedom Force spent the night at the Alamo Cenotaph after it was vandalized the night before with graffiti condemning “white supremacy,” “profit,” and “the Alamo.” The cenotaph is a monument to the defenders of the Alamo.
The group wrote in a social media post that it planned a larger turnout during a scheduled Black Lives Matter protest on Saturday: “We will be present and in much greater numbers. Militias, OCT [Open Carry Texas] and others will be joining us.”
Austin area officials, including Moore and Mayor Steve Adler, are eager to show that they’re addressing concerns of police brutality that have infuriated protesters. Adler said Friday, “These incidents did not begin with cell phone cameras. For our black and brown neighbors, the fear of appearing in one of those scenes is a generations-long ache, resulting in an erosion of trust in the police that makes the entire community less safe.”
Editor’s Note, 5/30/2020: Protests have continued Saturday around the Austin Police Department’s headquarters. For coverage of that:
