RNC 2020
Police use pepper spray, arrest five as protests continue for third night ahead of RNC
Protests rolled through uptown Charlotte for a third straight night ahead of the Republican National Convention, where President Donald Trump will be renominated in Charlotte Monday.
Over 100 protesters gathered in Marshall Park as Sunday night fell, but they split up into groups of about 15 to march through uptown. A handful of people carried umbrellas, which they said would help shield police tear gas.
The convention, scaled down due to COVID-19, is being held at the Charlotte Convention Center, before moving to Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump is scheduled to land in Charlotte Monday just as the delegates are finishing the state-by-state roll call vote.
Later Sunday evening, around 80 demonstrators gathered, chanting “No RNC in CLT” and “F--- Donald Trump” near the Westin Charlotte Hotel, where delegates are staying. They then marched back to South Tryon Street, near the overpass of I-277, until they reached police on bikes who were blocking their path. There, they stood face-to-face with the officers, chanting “Black Lives Matter.”
A protester yelled to the crowd that the officers had pepper spray in their hands, and the group turned around, as some chanted “F--- the police.”
Demonstrators also moved barricades and knocked over traffic cones.
They marched back up Tryon Street and reached the intersection of Trade Street, where a protester banged on the hood of a pickup truck trying to pass through the crowd, and others surrounded the vehicle. Police officers forced them back, and one demonstrator fell to the ground.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said in a tweet that when officers intervened in the situation, they were “assaulted” by demonstrators.
Around 60 protesters stood in front of a row of police, with those in front forming a line of umbrellas.
As they blocked the street, another driver came out of his vehicle and started yelling at demonstrators, and the situation grew tense.
At 4th and South College streets after midnight, demonstrators stood in the road in front of a bus and a car. Police approached them on bikes, stopped in front of them, and then rode into the crowd.
Dedan Waciuri, a demonstrator who said tonight was his first protest, said he tried to help a woman who had been knocked over by the bikes.
“I went to pick her up and I was hit by a handlebar,” he said.
A few minutes later, officers used pepper spray on a number of people.
“They just maced everybody,” said Jamel Elder, 27, who was in the front line of demonstrators when the pepper spray was deployed. “I put my head down but it was too late, it was already in my mouth and eyes.”
In a tweet, CMPD said protesters would not clear the intersection, and while officers were clearing it, they deployed pepper spray and made two arrests.
14 weekend arrests
The marches were much smaller than the flood of demonstrators in uptown Charlotte following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but crowds gathered throughout the weekend.
CMPD report five arrests were made overnight Sunday, including one person charged with taking a police bike and another accused of kicking an officer. Five CMPD officers were treated during the night for pepper spray exposure “and one of these five was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries,” police said in a Monday press release.
Five people were arrested Saturday during protests, and at least four were taken into custody on Friday, CMPD has said. That makes at least 14 arrests over the weekend.
CMPD said they arrested an individual Sunday whom they recognized with outstanding felony warrants. The second person who was arrested “interefered with officers” making the first arrest.
A separate group, Unemployed Action, displayed projections on the side of the Hilton Garden Inn, showing people who have lost their jobs.
The group is seeking to bring awareness to what it views as a failure of Republicans to address the impacts of COVID-19, said Alejandro Guerrero, worker justice organizer with the Center for Popular Democracy, parent group of Unemployed Action. He pointed to the stalled negotiations over the next relief package while a federal unemployment subsidy of $600 per week has expired.
“Your inactions have basically left millions of Americans suffering and basically living in anxiety for what the next couple of weeks, couple of months are going to look like,” he said.
Staff photographer Jeff Siner and staff writer Mark Price contributed