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Photo by Kristin Williams.
The Paper Doll bar on 1st Ave. N. in the Loft District was damaged in protests on May 31 during the night.
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Photo by Kristin Williams.
The Paper Doll bar on 1st Ave. N. in the Loft District was damaged in protests on May 31 during the night.
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Photo by Kristin Williams.
Robert Hill Custom Tailors on 3rd Ave. N. in the Loft District was damaged in protests on May 31 during the night.
Due to the civil unrest Birmingham saw on Sunday night following a peaceful demonstration against last week's killing of George Floyd, Mayor Randall Woodfin has declared a state of emergency in the city.
The mayor said a curfew will be strictly enforced beginning tonight at 7 p.m. and continuing until 6 a.m. It will be in place until further notice, Woodfin said.
There will be some exceptions, including medical needs or essential workers, but Woodfin said it will be strictly enforced.
The Birmingham Police Department “will be out in force,” said Chief Patrick D. Smith.
The looting, vandalism and other violence — much of it downtown — followed a peaceful event in Linn Park. Hundreds gathered to protest the killing of Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, who was killed by police in Minneapolis.
There was also a well-attended peaceful demonstration in Kelly Ingram Park on Saturday.
“The night we had here in our community and our city should not have ended that way,” Woodfin said.
“Here in Birmingham, we saw some of the best of what this city can offer when we stand in solidarity and lock arms and speak with one voice,” he said.
These peaceful events “turned into something that none of us deserve,” the mayor said, mentioning small-business owners, the corporate community and members of the media who were attacked.
“I 100% support civil disobedience but that is very different from civil unrest,” Woodfin said.
He said he supported the freedom to assemble and protest “but not mobs and people destroying things just because.”
The Birmingham Police Department made 22 arrests in the city Sunday night, Woodfin said.
There were 14 burglaries at commercial buildings last night, and 12 instances of looting, broken windows and other damage to buildings, officials said.
There were 22 fires in the city, including five at commercial structions, said Chief Cory Moon of the Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service.
“We support peaceful protest but when people set fires intentionally that puts lives at risk,” Moon said at the press conference. “I urge you please return these protests to being peaceful protests.”
At the Linn Park demonstration, some of the protesters attempted to topple the long-controversial Confederate monument there. Woodfin told participants that he supported their desire to remove the monument but that they should give him time to further explore its removal.
At his press conference, Woodfin said that he wants to have the monument taken down despite the fact that the state of Alabama passed a law preventing municipalities from removing such Confederate statues.
“In order to prevent more civil unrest, I think we remove this statue,” he said.
The city should take this action even if it risks facing legal action from the state attorney general, including a possible civil judgement from a court, the mayor said.
“I think that is a lower cost than civil unrest in our city,” Woodfin said. He said he wants to see if the monument can be removed without any further damage and explore donating it to a museum or to The Daughters of the Confederacy organization.
Regarding the law-breaking Sunday night, Woodfin invoked the city’s legacy of peaceful protests in the Civil Rights Era.
“This is not who we are,” he said. “This is not how we taught the world to protest. Violence looting and chaos are not the road to reform.”
He also encouraged citizens who saw some of the people who broke the law or attacked journalists Sunday night to come forward and help the police find the perpetrators.
UPDATE 6-1-20 11:45 a.m. This post was updated with additional information from the press conference.
